Faith in action: Church's compassionate aid for migrants in Spain

May 01, 2024

By Felipe Herrera-Espaliat, Special Correspondent in Ceuta and Algeciras
Ceuta is a Spanish city, but it is located in Africa, in northern Morocco, at the Mediterranean entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar. It is a strategic territory not only for Spain but also for the thousands of African migrants trying to enter Spain each year, setting foot in Europe for the first time. But since 2020, when circulation through the border was heavily restricted, posing significant obstacles to the flow of people, everything has become more difficult. 

An eight-kilometer-long and ten-meter-high fence serves as a barrier between the two countries, a fence that hundreds of people try to climb over every day. Many succeed, but then they are arrested and immediately repatriated to Morocco or, in the best cases, taken to immigrant detention centers. Others, taking greater risks, bypass this wall by swimming for an average of four hours from the Moroccan coast to the shores of Ceuta. Those who do not die in this attempt arrive exhausted, soaked, and bereft of everything, trembling not only from the cold but also from the fear of being discovered by the police.

And the risks do not end there, especially for women who, often deceived with false promises of work, fall into the hands of human trafficking networks that force them into prostitution. They end up living in apartments that are both their accommodation and the brothel from which they can only leave for a couple of hours a day, under the strict control of the “mafia” that has abducted them.

Doubly vulnerable
In Ceuta, there are Catholic Church organizations that are active in the fight against human trafficking, such as the Cruz Blanca Foundation. Among its many assistance programs for those in need and for migrants, its initiatives to save women who have been forced into prostitution stand out. Its members visit them in brothels with healthcare supplies and, in doing so, come into contact with them.

Irene Pascual, a social worker for this institution, knows the trafficking victims very closely. She personally follows many of them to provide guidance and support so they can leave that situation. She says it's not easy at all because the exploiters take advantage of the fact that these women don't speak the local language and don't have support networks. "A woman is a doubly vulnerable: being a migrant and being a woman. Women don't see another way out when they arrive in a country they don't know. The only way they see to move forward is to engage in prostitution," explains Irene.

Segregation in "El Príncipe"
This foundation, with 20 assistance centers in Spain, is led by the religious community of the Franciscans of the Cruz Blanca (White Cross) and managed by highly qualified teams to address the challenges posed by poverty and by the current migration crisis. "Migrants arrive with very different needs, and various professional figures help identify these specific needs. We brothers team up with them, and are willing to work 24 hours a day every day. All this for the love of God," assures Brother Cosmas Nduli Ndambuki.--Vatican News