Friday, 18 February 2011

Jumping back to poverty

CEUTA (Agencies) It had never happened before: an 'illegal' immigrant tried to jump back over the fence from Ceuta to Morocco in an attempt to eventually return to his native Mali. Omar Chuick set off the alarms along a portion of the 8.2 kilometres of barbed wire fencing (photo) and the Guardia Civil didn´t believe his story when they reached the spot. Having arrived by boat, he was fed up with  waiting for access to the peninsula for four years and had lost hope. He said he would try again, this way or some other, if he got the chance. Reports say that Chuick was not actually arrested, only warned that he was trespassing but that he would now be sent to the Temporary Immigration Centre, where he had not previously been registered. The authorities believe that he had been sleeping in or around the port (for four years!). Mali is the seventh largest country on the African continent, and one of its poorest. With a population of some 12 million inhabitants, its borders are Algeria to the North, Niger to the East, Mauritania and Senegal to the West and Ivory Coast, Guinea and Burkina Faso to the South.

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