Friday, September 15, 2006
Immigration, tourism collide in Canaries
The Mail & Guardian Online report that "some of the tourists say they have also had enough." Now, I'll partially curb my tongue over my opinion that those who fail to have sympathy - both for the immigrants' plight and for the hard worked rescue services who work around the clock to attend them - are not the kind of tourists we even want to have visit us, but it does worry me that there is still a LOT of misinformation over the issue and, unless corrected, could indeed cloud the view of tourists who would choose these islands. So, to hopefully counter some of this misinformation, I offer the following comments.
To British visitor, Beryl Parkin, who wouldn't like it if they pestered you:
When I first came to this island 15 years ago, there were already many African street sellers on the island; dubbed "Looky Looky Men". Yeah, they could be persistent, but they are just trying to make a life. Speak to them nicely and they have never been unpleasant to me, anyway. The trouble is, that some people will assume they are being pestered by "illegal immigrants" if they encounter any black person here, unless they are aware of the facts. Knowing that we are only 100 miles or so off the African coast, actually, it surprised me more when I arrived, that there were not more persons of African appearance here.
The main point is their presence pre-dated the "boat people phenomenon" by a long way. It would be a horrible mistake to assume that all black people on this island arrived recently on a boat! I also know black people who live in Tenerife, who arrived by plane from England and are just as English as I am.
The article itself says that, "If the migrants' nationality cannot be ascertained, they are ultimately freed onto the streets."
This is true, but it is not the whole truth. So far only FOUR immigrants had to be released on the streets of the Canary Islands - because flights to the mainland had been suspended while Senegalese officials on the island could determine how many of their countrymen there are in the retention centers.
French speakers are advised to choose France or Belgium and that is where a lot of them are heading, after they get their "free trip" to the Spanish mainland, so to Belgian tourist Christiane Klimek, who says he would go to Malaga or elsewhere if "there are lots of blacks around", I'd advise him to stay away from his own country, if encountering humans of other ethnic origin bothers him! He is far more likely to meet them at home, than he is on the streets of Tenerife.
Immigration, tourism collide in Canaries
