“14 hours without drinking, without eating”: how Salim, a 36-year-old Algerian, crossed the Mediterranean Sea illegally

Refugees on an inflatable boat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea on June 27, 2022. (Illustration) MAXPPP – Michael Bunel/Le Pictorium

Every year, thousands of people want to cross the Mediterranean Sea, with the aim of reaching the European coasts, in search of a better future. But this clandestine journey is not without danger, these men, women and children risk their lives on makeshift boats.

Salim M., 36, is from Taourirt Moussa, in the wilaya (administrative division, editor's note) of Tizi Ouzou in Algeria. This thirty-something Kabyle decided in 2018 to leave his native country to go to France. Traditionalist education, the omnipresence of religion and state oppression pushed him to board a “flouka” – a boat in Arabic – and become a “harraga”, a person who crosses the Mediterranean Sea illegally.

“14 hours without drinking, without eating”

Six years ago, it's a friend of this Algerian who offers to change his life. An acquaintance of his would organize crossings from the Oran coast to Spain. For Salim, it is now or never. He does not hesitate and prepares some things, gathers some money which he hides in a sweater and goes to the meeting place.

“My departure was scheduled for October 24, 2018, at 8 p.m., from a beach near Oran. The smugglers here make arrangements with the navy, which turns a blind eye. After a few problems, we left in the middle of the night at 2 a.m. There were fifteen of us on an inflatable boat. It cost me 1,200,000 dinars, or 500 euros”, Salim tells Midi Libre. This is when a journey begins in the middle of the water, with the only hope of seeing the Spanish lands appear on the horizon.

“During the crossing, the weather was rather calm, the sea too. And there were dolphins near the boat, he remembers, but we spent 14 hours without drinking, without eating. Only one bottle of milk that we shared. It's difficult… When we arrived near Spain, there were big boats making waves. The water got into our boat, we were wet but luckily there was no problem."

“I was thirsty, very thirsty”

After more than half a day of sailing, Salim and the other “harragas” landed on a beach in Almería in Andalusia, in southern Spain.

“Once we disembarked, we dispersed. I stayed with a friend, Mustafa and our acquaintance. We found a house near the beach and knocked. A local couple opened the door. I was thirsty, very thirsty. The woman and her husband came out with bottles of water, bananas, sweet and salty food… The man then took his vehicle and dropped us off at a bus stop, about fifteen kilometers away, recalls Salim, He gave us a phone and we were able to call our parents. I immediately reassured my mother, she was happy."

Passed through Montpellier

Although he survived, the journey was not over. After going to Alicante, the three illegal immigrants were arrested near the train station by the Spanish authorities, who gave them 72 hours to leave the country. Then Salim took the TGV again and stopped at Montpellier station and got closer to his goal: Paris. On October 29, he arrives in the capital and a new life begins for him.

“There is no happiness without pain…”

Six years later, Salim is still in France, without papers. This trained mason works in markets or on construction sites, but he has never returned to Algeria and has never seen his family again.

Although he left his country for France, his daily life here is not always easy. “It's not easy every day. I miss my mother, it's for her that I did this… In France, we move around a lot, we don't have a stable life, no family, we have no one, we sometimes feel like nothing, he laments. But there is no happiness without pain…"

Condemned to exile

Does he have any regrets? Would he start the same journey again? His answer is unequivocal: "If it were do it again, I will do it again. If I am expelled, I will come back!” This 36-year-old Algerian, almost condemned to exile, keeps all proof of existence, such as visits to the doctor or sheets assuring that he works, while keeping the hope of one day being able to obtain the papers and bring his parents over.

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