The migration route carries its share of tragedies with the disappearance of thousands of young Africans in the waters of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Among the countries most affected, there is Senegal, from which many boats leave for the Canary Islands in particular. Over the past three weeks, no less than four hundred young people have died as a result of shipwrecks. Revolted by the silence that they equate to an unacceptable indifference, some populations mobilized last Friday, November 13, a grim date which under French skies recalls the attacks which struck the Bataclan, the Stade de France and the cafes of the 10e and 11e arrondissements of Paris. Objective: to organize a day of digital mourning in tribute to all the unfortunate young people swallowed up by the sea on the road to illegal emigration.
Mourning and controversy
As a sign of “digital recollection” towards the victims, the choice was made to publish on social networks profile photos, dark images, a man in tears, a candle or a white shroud enveloping a body in the center. of a canoe. To support the tributes and bear witness to the tragedy of irregular migration, many hashtags were used: #LeSenegalenDeuil #DeuilNationalSN for example.
At the origin of this digital mobilization, Pope Demba Dione, a young 28-year-old, launched the idea of this digital mourning on Twitter, outraged by the silence of Senegalese President Macky Sall following the sinking on October 26 of a canoe in destination of the Canary Islands. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), of the 200 passengers, the death toll is 140: “The heaviest for the country for the year 2020.”
The authorities on the index
Taken to task, the Senegalese authorities dispute the figures and speak of a dozen deaths. The controversy swells as much as the demand of a large part of the population to mark a national mourning remains a dead letter. “There was no reaction. President Macky Sall’s silence is striking, especially since he very often uses social networks to communicate on various subjects. He is often present for dramas abroad, but rarely when it happens in his country! », Tackle Jaly Badiane, journalist, among the citizens who joined Pope Demba Dione to organize the campaign of November 13th.
And Senegalese Internet users did not fail to recall that President Macky Sall, during the presidential campaign in February 2019, made the promise to create more than a million jobs in five years. At 4e quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate was 16.9% according to the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD), a figure which indicates how desperate, with the Covid-19 crisis, the situation of young people is .
1is November, the pain was more acute when the shipwrecks were pushed into the background by the cabinet reshuffle of the 1is November. The accusation made by certain politicians attributing the tragedies to the families of the victims aggravated the anger of the public opinion, which perceived this posture as a maneuver aimed at clearing itself and discharging all responsibility.
A boost to digital mobilization
Consequence: the call for meditation on the networks finds a second wind and the message is distributed en masse. “I am very happy with the mobilization. I did not expect so many shares, ”explains the real estate developer, the creator of the @ 221Help Twitter account which helps young people find jobs and internships but who had no such campaign experience.
The spontaneity of digital platforms and above all their wide reach did the rest, making it possible to reach the local population but also the diaspora, and more broadly Internet users around the world. “The goal is to mobilize, to alert on this tragedy of irregular emigration. This strong mobilization also allows us to challenge the government, to show it that the population is fed up and wants change, ”he adds.
Doudou, the face of irregular emigration
Among the many tributes to the victims, the one paid to Doudou deeply moved the public. His story and his photo published in the Senegalese media tell the horror of irregular emigration and his youthful face symbolized that of these thousands of young people engulfed in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean on the way from hope to a better future that they have cultivated in themselves.
The youngest passenger in the canoe on which he had boarded, Doudou, barely 14 years old, dreamed of joining Spain and Italy in order to achieve his dream of becoming a professional footballer. Sick, he did not arrive at the end of a trip that his father had secretly organized, without notifying the boy’s mother, by paying 250,000 FCFA (around 380 euros) to a smuggler. This led him to be arrested and taken into custody during the week of the tragedy by the Mbour police for ” manslaughter and complicity in the smuggling of migrants ».
The explanation: deep despair
For Jaly Badiane, originally from Mbour, a town on the small Senegalese coast, 80 km from Dakar, the pain is immense to see many candidates for exile leaving. “Young people no longer have a future. They no longer have visibility on their future and no longer believe in their chances of succeeding in the country, ”she laments, explaining that around twenty young people from this locality died in the tragedy at the end of October. “Certain trades are particularly affected, such as fishermen. They are no longer able to do it when they could previously earn a good living, ”she says. At issue: the fishing licenses granted to foreign vessels against which traditional canoes can hardly fight. A new fisheries agreement concluded in recent days with the European Union has also been strongly criticized by the population.
Another problem: the economic crisis due to Covid-19. “The informal sector, which constitutes a very large part of economic activity in Senegal, is strongly affected. Before, the diaspora supported the family in the country but, it too, suffered the pandemic and its support decreased “, analyzes it before concluding:” All this explains the increase of departures towards Europe lately. , and this, even if the prices of the crossing explode. Young people are now trying everything for everything. ”Illustration: according to the public relations department of the national police, more than 1,537 migrants including 29 couriers were arrested during the month of October 2020 alone.
“Faced with the mobilization and the repercussions of this migration on society, it is essential to continue to act. We are also going to take other initiatives. I was contacted by the International Organization for Migration to think about the future, ”Pope Demba Dione concluded with great motivation. The sign that the young populations of the countries of the South have decided to create a situation capable of putting pressure on the rulers who seem to look elsewhere.
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