Next Sunday, the two strongest teams in African football will meet in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in Abidjan (Ivory Coast). Almost 6,000 kilometers away, in Madrid, a group of African asylum seekers will, like every afternoon, fight for victory in the football tournament that they are organizing on the pitches of the Parque de la Gavia, in the Ensanche de Vallecas. The majority, asylum seekers, were moved by authorities to a nearby dormitory after spending weeks in unsanitary, overcrowded conditions at Madrid-Barajas airport. These days, football serves as their escape route while they wait uncertainly for their case to be solved.
Abdulah (false name to protect his anonymity), an 18-year-old Somali, arrived in Spain in November, spent 25 days at the airport and was transferred to the hostel earlier this year. It's clear to him: he doesn't want to spend any more time in administrative limbo. “We have been in this situation for months. “I have big ambitions: I want to start a new life and contribute to Spain, but I can’t,” he says. His agenda, like that of the dozens of migrants who share his routine, is virtually empty. “While our requests are being resolved, this short period of time playing football is all we have.”
Every afternoon from 3:30 p.m. the teams are sorted by nationality and language. The game will be played in English, French and Wolof (a language spoken primarily in Senegal and Gambia), with thirty players coming from Somalia, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali and Morocco. Before it starts, some warm up and others retreat to a corner of the field to pray – the majority are Muslims. They are the only people present in the sports facility and the atmosphere before the game is one of a party.
More information
When you ask them about their trip to Barajas, everyone smiles ironically, as if it were a traumatic memory that they would rather not talk about. While they agree that the migrants' arrival represents a challenge for the Spanish authorities – to whom they are grateful – they agree to describe the scenes they witnessed as “chaotic” or “disgusting”. They arrived expecting things to be easier and found themselves at the airfield for three weeks in conditions the ombudsman described as “degrading”. “It was like a prison. We couldn't go out on the streets, we couldn't shower, people were sleeping on the floor and we didn't know what would happen to us. Although we were able to call our families, our cell phones were confiscated. There is too much uncertainty,” explains Abdulah.
Some of the migrants gathered in Parque de la Gavia pray towards Mecca before playing football. Santi Burgos
What influences the most is what happens next. So you don't miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe to
His colleagues are afraid to talk to strangers. “For us, every wrong word or gesture is equivalent to a red card. We don’t want them to throw us out of the country,” admits Youssuf (also false name), who was born in Senegal 23 years ago. However, Abdulah is outgoing and has no problem expressing his problems. “My dream was always to become a writer and to tell stories about the suffering of our people. After what we've been through, we need to explain reality to people. Anyone who criticizes immigration today may have to emigrate tomorrow, because God only guarantees that we are here today,” he emphasizes.
The process for applying for international protection is long and arduous, but recent months have seen an unprecedented surge, forcing the government to expand facilities at Madrid airport to accommodate more migrants. Spanish legislation stipulates that the duration of the trip cannot generally exceed 18 months, a period during which recipients go through different phases. The entire group is currently in the first phase of their asylum application – initial assessment and forwarding – for which they can only wait. This first procedure, which they call “level zero,” was, they hoped, resolved positively in about three months for other migrants they met in Barajas. Subsequently, if accepted, they would enter the autonomy phase in which they would receive Spanish courses and vocational training courses with the aim of finding a job and housing and with the aim of normalizing their situation and remaining in Spain.
Abdulah is desperate to learn Spanish and can't stop asking questions about his new country. You have to find a house, meet your neighbors and create a community. He doesn't know much about Spain, but what has surprised him most so far is the fact that there is a king and a president at the same time. “So there are two governments?” “I don't understand it,” he says between laughs. Her priority is to find a job to be financially independent. Next, he confides, will come the house, his Meet neighbors and create a community. And finally, find a soccer team in the neighborhood to make friends. “We Somalis don't play soccer well because we don't eat good food. Only rice and noodles, hardly any protein. Here I eat better than ever before,” he says.
Next Sunday, Nigeria, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast will raise the scepter of African football. For an hour and a half, the happiest people on the continent will stop their lives and stare at the television. It is unlikely that any of the asylum-seeking boys who make up the group will be able to watch the game from Spain; But they have a clear plan for Sunday afternoon: at the usual time and place. You only need one ball.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_