Lack of Money Stalls Immigrant's Journey

Five hundred miles southeast of here in Mali, Seikou Sissoko was living with his eight brothers and sisters in a mud hut that leaked every time it rained.

"My parents are suffering. My grandparents are suffering," said Sissoko, 22. "I can't stay there without doing anything to help."

So in February, he paid $60 for the three-day bus trip to Nouadhibou, a coastal city in Mauritania, in northwestern Africa. He sees the place as a gateway to Europe and a good-paying job.

While he schemes to find a way to get on a boat to the Canary Islands, 600 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, Sissoko rents a $12-a-month room with two other migrants from Mali.

Sitting on the floor of this 10-by-10-foot room, with three foam mattresses layed out and gym bags hanging from nails on the wall, Sissoko said two of his friends had successfully made the trip to the Canaries in February. Both have called to urge him to come, he said.

But he said another friend wasn't so lucky. Of the 40 people on his boat, 29 died, and 11 were rescued and returned to Nouadhibou.

The survivors said they ran out of fuel because whoever sold them gas had filled many of the tanks with only water. As they drifted, they said, their little open boat was swamped by the wake of a large fishing trawler that passed too close.

"If I found a good boat, one that wasn't too crowded, I would go," he said. "But right now I don't have the money. It's not a question of will, it's a question of money."

Sissoko earns $10 a day working construction, when he can find work. He hasn't been able to save anything because, he said, "what we earn, we eat."

He said he had looked into the possibility of going with a smuggler across the Sahara to Ceuta or Melilla, two Spanish enclaves on the northern coast of Morocco. But since Spain and Morocco built higher fences and stepped up enforcement there late last year, he said, he thought Mauritania was the best route.

"Before, nobody came to Nouadhibou, but now this is the only possibility," he said.

Sissoko said that he had friends living in France and that he might like to join them there after arriving in the Canaries, which belong to Spain.

Many Africans remember that their grandparents and great-grandparents fought for colonial rulers in Europe during two world wars, he said. "They sacrificed for Europe and never came back," he said. "So Europe should help Africa now."