Arduos adventure(by Asmaa Belahbib)

12.02.2021

Arduos adventure. Asmaa Belahbib. CC-BY-SA

I would like to define SOLIDARITY: Helping other people without expecting anything in return, when a person does you a favor so that they really feel it and want to help and agree with others in the way they think, feel or do, willing to share their responsibilities.
When did you decide to cross the strait? Where did the idea of coming to Spain come from?
In Morocco you live very badly. There are people in my neighborhood who are in Spain and I wanted to try too, I didn't want to stay and live like my family life, working hard.
What kind of life did you have in Morocco?
I come from a poor family. There I was studying, but from the age of twelve I started looking for a way to Spain. I tried two years, until I got it when I was fourteen. At home, my parents told me I had to work at the same time I was studying, and I couldn't stand it, I missed the class a lot.
How did you cross the Strait?
I went to Tangier and found a man who offered to make me come back. I stayed at his house for a few days and then we left. We stayed three days at sea, without food, without drinking, with nothing... Right after we left, the patera ran out of gas and we ran out of the middle of the sea. The floor of the patera broke inside and the water could rise. I'm just lost my life.
Do you have contact with your family?
It took me a year to talk to my mother. My mother thought he was dead, because he feels there are dead children going to the trucks. There is no phone in my house, but in Madrid I found a boy from my neighborhood who is a neighbor and has a phone and his parents warned my mother.
As for the latent racism that exists in Spanish society have you felt rejected for being Arabs?
In the center where I study, a colleague always tells me, "Fuera de aquí, moro de mierda". I'm not saying anything. He once said it and all the people who were there started laughing. I couldn't anymore and we almost beat each other up. I was expelled for three days, but did nothing. But then, for example, my teachers and classmates have helped me a lot with the problems I had to talk about, especially our Spanish teacher who has taught us how to speak and who has also listened to us.
Would you recommend that other young Moroccans follow the same path you've taken?
No!