A court in Senegal has sentenced three fathers to jail after it found out that the three fathers had forced their sons to migrate. They were found guilty of ‘endangering the lives of others’.
Of the three men, one of the sons had died during their attempt to cross the dangerous Atlantic and this had led him (the father) to be sentenced to 2 years in jail with 23 months suspended. This judgement was passed on the 8th of December.
According to the news agency Associated Press (AP), Mamadou Lamine Faye’s son, 14-year-old Doudou, died after setting off from the coastal town of Mbour in Senegal in mid-October. The court was told his father had paid the equivalent of about €380 to a smuggler to take his son to Spain.
The migrations was in hope that he would travel to Spain and become a great football player so he could have a better life, not to endanger his life.
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AP said that Faye was arrested in November shortly after news of his son’s death. The other two men’s sons survived but have now been returned to Senegal.
The numbers of migrants attempting to leave Senegal and make the risky crossing towards the Spanish Canary Island archipelago has risen dramatically this year reported The African courier.
The latest figures from the UN refugee agency UNHCR from December 6th show that 21,028 migrants arrived on the Canary Islands this year. That’s almost as many as the total sea arrivals (including those who crossed the Mediterranean from north Africa) in the whole of 2019.
More than 500 people have died attempting the crossing this year.
In regards to in Senegal fathers sentenced to jail for forcing sons to migrate – according to a local Senegalese newspaper, Doudou’s father said during the trial that all he wanted was “to open the doors of success [for his son.]” He said he had taken him to the local marabouts (traditional religious figures) so that they could pray for his son but “if I had known he would die, I would never have taken the risk.”
Faye continued that whilst people might see him in front of them in court, his “soul has already left my body.”
Source: InfoMigrants, The African Courier