When their numbers are called, they cheer and joke, although many of these asylum seekers have terrifying backstories.
Michael is one of them; he left Ghana to avoid a feud that turned violent and resulted in the deaths of his father and sister. He paid a trafficker to put him aboard an inflatable boat packed with people that carried him to the Canary Islands after traveling by land to Morocco.
He exclaims, “I was ecstatic to know that all of my problems and the people who were trying to kill me were behind me.” “Because you are safe once you are in Spain.”
He held jobs as a storekeeper and a gas pump attendant in Ghana. In addition, he began studying human resource management, which he intends to finish in Spain after relocating.
This hotel in the village of Villaquilambre, which has been turned into a migrant center, is home to some 170 asylum seekers.
They are a part of the numerous thousands of individuals that travel annually by sea between the coast of Africa and Spain.
More than 42,000 undocumented migrants have entered Spain so far this year, a 59% increase from 2023. The great majority of them have made the treacherous journey to the Canary Islands.
