“IF YOU GIVE ME A FEEL, I’LL GIVE YOU A LIGHTER”: THEY REPORT ABUSES IN A SHELTER CAMP IN TENERIFE

Immigrants, some of them minors, find themselves trapped in a spiral of sexual abuse in order to survive
This is how the 3,700 minors live under the guardianship of the Community of Madrid
The abuse of various citizens to the shelters, taking advantage of their vulnerability, is constant. “Six or seven cases a day,” they detail.

 

Prostitution is not illegal but “abuse is”, emphasizes Expósito. 

It’s more cheaper than another person and if they find someone in need, they succeed. “The morbidity is a market,” he laments.

Since they are immigrants “they don’t care. If this happened in any other center with another group, they would not let it happen.

The association of volunteers Hay Raíces denounces the abuses of the foster children, many of them minors

Those who commit such abuses “know that nothing is wrong with them.” “We warn immigrants to be careful with these people, but they are desperate,” they abuse “without any shame,” he says.
The Las Raíces camp, where there are some 200 immigrants, has reached more than 2,000 simultaneously. 

A dead baby at sea
Zebenzuí Expósito affirms that the vulnerability of immigrants from Las Raíces is self-explanatory. Some are undergoing psychological and psychiatric treatment, like Mohamed, from Mali. After days on the road, the little boy died of hypothermia in the middle of the Atlantic. “He had to leave his baby in the sea” and he reached the other shore alive, but without family.

They ensure that those who seek to exploit the

Immigrants “do not cut themselves” because “morbidity is a market”

Those who come from Senegal fleeing from hunger “almost all are denied asylum” because hunger “is not a sufficient reason.” Some of them, from Morocco and Senegal for example, “are deported in 10-15 days”, but they will try again. Exposito has welcomed one in his house. “He spent 14 days at sea, 6 of them without eating or drinking,” he recounts. He and the other occupants “one more day and they die, they were already drinking seawater.”

Zebenzuí Expósito has his job, but he has been helping as a volunteer in the camp for years. “If I were in this situation I would want someone to help me out.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back To Top