MOROCCO: 'Migrant' journalist Dominique Mollard tells of treacherous trip out of Africa by boat

Record ID: 348128

  • Title: MOROCCO: 'Migrant' journalist Dominique Mollard tells of treacherous trip out of Africa by boat
  • Date: 3rd November 2007
  • Summary: (AD2) RABAT, MOROCCO (OCTOBER 30, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MOLLARD WALKING ALONG SANDY BEACH (SOUNDBITE) (English) FRENCH JOURNALIST DOMINIQUE MOLLARD, SAYING: "The situation really started getting out of hand, and people were panicking on board -- praying, crying, everybody was sick because of the swell and because of the fact that we were drifting with the swell, and I
  • Embargoed: 18th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Morocco
  • Country: Morocco
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVABY9RK26O9IZ37SPLMPKE5RO25
  • Story Text: French journalist Dominique Mollard shares his experiences as a 'migrant', when he joined 38 Africans trying to make the perilous voyage to Spain's Canary Islands in a fishing boat.
    Huddled together in a 14-metre-long, leaky boat, buffeted by huge waves and narrowly missing immense tankers -- these 38 people were willing to try anything to get to Spain's Canary Islands and a new life in Europe.
    Among them was Dominique Christian Mollard, who they knew as an undercover worker with a non-governmental organization. In reality, he was an independent TV reporter who had spent the last year waiting for a chance to steal aboard a fishing boat with other illegal immigrants and share their dangerous journey out of Africa.
    Desperate to escape poverty, more than 30,000 Africans risked their lives to reach the Canaries in 2006 but many died on the way, victims of poor planning, treacherous seas or people-traffickers.
    For the ones who made it, there was a new battle for asylum papers to avoid deportation.
    Mollard spent a year in the Mauritian port town of Nouadhibou, sharing room with travellers to win their trust and striking deals with trafficking gangs.
    The 58-year-old veteran of wars in Afghanistan and Somalia endured more than 20 false starts, was twice tricked out of his money and once rounded up by gun-toting Mauritanian police.
    But in late August 2007 Mollard found himself aboard a 14-metre fishing boat chugging into the dark, surging ocean with 38 seasick fellow passengers for a voyage expected to last up to five days, if all went well.
    He had paid 850 euros ($1,198) to be packed in alongside young people from Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Mauritania, Ghana and Guinea Conakry with no cooking gear, toilets or shelter.
    He soon discovered that on the boat it was "every man for himself". The four "captains" of the boat were all "doped up" and violent.
    People were soaked in sea spray and were soon too ill to lean over the side to vomit.
    The poorly built boat leaked and the engine was constantly cutting out.
    They discovered the fuel had been deliberately mixed with water which they managed to syphon off.
    After the sun set on the second day the sea grew rough and the engine died. The captains dismantled it, than replaced it with an older one. Nothing worked.
    The lights of a tall cargo ship appeared half a kilometre away and the panicking migrants lit a distress flare, but the ship lumbered on heedless into the night.
    Early on the third day, Mollard decided to use the satphone he had brought along but hidden up to then for fear of raising suspicions that he would give the migrants away.
    He called the Spanish coastguard and was told a Russian oil tanker would switch course, pick them up and hand them over to a Spanish patrol boat that would take them to Canaries.
    "The situation really started getting out of hand, and people were panicking on board -- praying, crying, everybody was sick because of the swell and because of the fact that we were drifting with the swell, and I decided to make a phone call with my sat phone and I called a rescue centre in the Canary Islands," he said.
    Celebrations broke out, but later as the tanker approached a patrol boat, hope gave way to despair -- it turned out they were just 5 miles from Dakhla in Western Sahara. The migrants were back to square one.
    Now, Mollard says he wants to get out the message that no-one should attempt the kind of journey he calls "suicidal".
    My very clear message today -- never try, never try to get on one of these boats because it is far too dangerous and it is not worth the risk taking," he said.
    Instead, he believes that European governments need to take a more sympathetic view of those trying to come and make a better life for themselves.
    "They prefer living in Africa. This is what we don't understand too often in Europe. They don't want to be parasites, to live and stay in Europe, they just want to have the chance to earn some money in order to go back and live a decent life, be able to choose a wife and build a family," he said.
    Mollard is preparing a documentary of his experience.
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