A 17-year-old Moroccan girl has urged her friend who crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta to stay in Spain and not return to Morocco, after a mass crossing attempt that killed one member of their group and left several others injured.
Lina and Leila, both from Tetuán in northern Morocco, had planned the crossing together with a group of 10 friends. They gathered on Thursday at the beach of Fnideq, known in Spanish as Castillejos, joking and posing for photographs before entering the water. Four of the group reached Ceuta. One drowned, according to accounts from the surviving friends. The rest failed to make it across.
Lina, 17, is back in Fnideq, walking on a crutch after injuring her foot and arm during her failed attempt. She told the Spanish news agency Efe she had spent four days in the water across multiple attempts and that she remained determined to reach Spain.
Leila, 18, made it to Ceuta but has not found the life she hoped for. She is sheltering in the home of a family she did not previously know, who took her in during the first hours but is now asking her to leave. Leila, who turns 19 in less than a month, holds a qualification in cooking and had left her job at a restaurant in Tetuán when she learned that groups were making collective attempts to enter Ceuta.
The two friends spoke by video call in the presence of Efe. Lina urged Leila to stay with the family sheltering her and not go outside until the critical days had passed. She said that despite the humiliation they had suffered, God was with them both.
Leila said she did not want to return to Morocco. She said she was grateful to God for surviving and described chaotic conditions during the crossing: people fell on top of one another in the water, authorities struck migrants from the fence, and stones blocked the path forward. She added that she could not swim well.
Before the group entered the water on Thursday, they posed for photographs and asked an Efe journalist to take a group picture and send it to them. One of the young men said he would keep trying until he made it. Another shouted that they were leaving while making a victory sign.
Lina's own account reflects years of hardship. She said she left home at 15 and has since lived on the streets, with foster families and in an orphanage where children were beaten or denied food if they disobeyed. She now lives with a relative in a home with no running water or electricity, is in the first year of secondary school, and works at a wedding planning company. She said qualifications in Morocco were worth nothing and that she was determined to emigrate to find work and start a new life. Morocco was wonderful, she told Leila during the call, but there was no decent work there.
