{"id":9213,"date":"2026-04-27T15:33:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.openvaluefoundation.org\/?p=9213"},"modified":"2026-04-27T15:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:33:59","slug":"blog-post-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/2026\/04\/27\/blog-post-33\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog post 33"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are words that resonate even when they are said. muted, agonising or anonymous voices<\/strong>. Words that break the shell of unique accounts and reveal their inconsistencies and contradictions<\/strong>, reaffirming that \u201ceven in the time of metadata\u201d\u00a0 -as Yolanda Reyes wrote\u2013, \u201cThere are always missing data.<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among all the videos recorded at the end of June, the hours in which 1,700 human beings attempted to seize a border post in Morocco to reach Europe<\/strong> and they were trapped in a sinkhole of unjustifiable brutality<\/strong>, there are some which highlight an essential element in this entire narrative, so riddled with stereotypes and prejudices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These other testimonies, with residual virality, show the arrival of around 130 young Africans \u2013 mostly Sudanese \u2013 in the streets of Melilla, that African corner of Spain, that distant European border in the south. \"Maman, je t'aime!\" (Mum, I love you!), \"Maman merci!\" (Thanks, Mum!), they shout at the camera of a mobile phone that is recording them as if it were a televised victory. \"I love you very much, my mother!\" says another boy, his Spanish flowing. They are all celebrating the end of a journey that began a long time ago in distant villages in sub-Saharan Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Booza! Booza! Booza!<\/strong> They sing euphorically. Listening to them is to recall the pages of *Hermanito*, the testimony of Ibrahima Balde, a young Guinean who travelled across the desert, cities, and sea to Spain in search of his younger brother, Alhassane. \u201cIt is a cry from the Africans. It is sung when an adventure at sea ends successfully.\u201d<\/strong> Explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These images construct an alternative migration narrative in which those people are not cold, hard data; nor headlines for sensationalist journalism; nor bait for hate politics.<\/strong> A story in which the 23 dead left by the assault on Nador that Friday in June<\/strong> - according to official figures - they were not nameless silhouettes, human beings who have faced the risk of death in another latitude due to desperation or hopelessness, motivated by reasons, longings, aspirations, and experiences as diverse as they are unquestionable, as profound as they are ungovernable.<\/strong>, because neither the European deterrent model of \u201cvertical borders\u201d, nor the mafias that traffic refugees and migrants, nor the adversity of inhospitable geographies, are enough to break The dynamic force of human mobility. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if there is one thing this other account denounces, it is that we are facing an opaque system in its operation, which allows itself to be violent and disproportionate when nobody is looking.<\/strong> That's why What happened in Nador is important, because we saw the moments when the system transgressed its own limits.<\/strong>, the results of Europe channelling generous economic resources into the securitisation and outsourcing of its borders, rather than to open avenues for enriching European societies with diversity, youth and talent. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other reasons, because it's no longer just about the 2030 Agenda acknowledges that migration is a powerful driver of sustainable development<\/strong>, an opportunity for the transfer of labour, knowledge and innovation (UN), for productivity and public finances (IOM) and in general for economic development (WEF), but we are talking about A phenomenon that will redefine the future and the planet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natural disasters and the effects of climate change, conflicts, and economic shocks will intensify the unease of seeking hope beyond borders. In fact, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has indicated that the number of people who have left their homes due to these factors has already reached 100 million, and according to World Bank estimates, it is predicted that the climate crisis could force 216 million people to leave their countries by 2050. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe is late to sustainably prepare for a future that seems unstoppable. He has dug trenches to counter a phenomenon that he could \u2013 and should \u2013 have embraced long ago.<\/strong> He tried with all his might to build an impenetrable migratory architecture, which today shows all its cracks. A paradigm, narrative, and policy-decision shift is therefore needed, based on one idea: migration is natural, benign, and necessary, but above all, inevitable.<\/strong> It is not about framing it within economic utilitarianism, nor about reducing it to a matter of irresolvable vulnerabilities, but rather about arguing that All human beings have the right to a dignified life regardless of the soil beneath their feet, and that labour migration, family ties, or the search for refuge are, in sum, the exercise of the universal right to inhabit this planet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The widespread compassion and institutional dynamism with which the terrible crisis in Ukraine has been tackled, especially concerning refugees, highlights that new paths can be created for the social integration and economic empowerment of foreign nationals, without language \u2013 to cite a recurring pretext in other cases \u2013 being an obstacle. There will be those who say it\u2019s not the same. And perhaps all change begins precisely with that reflection: Why isn't it the same for Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When that question finds a realistic and self-critical answer from institutions, the media, the business sector, academia, and civil society, we will surely find a way to prevent the violence seen in Nador from happening again. We will find a way to guide \u2013 without instrumentalising \u2013 development cooperation so that those<\/strong> young people to have life projects in their countries of origin or destination, so that their names are not lost in a desert or a trench, so that their mothers know they arrived safely<\/strong>. And that will be the best memorial for all those who have lost their lives searching for it far from their loved ones.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Santiago S\u00e1nchez Benavides is an advisor in public policy and cooperation for sustainable development. Journalist and founder of Voice (ES)<\/a>, an initiative to boost the economic empowerment of the migrant population in Spain.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hay palabras que resuenan aunque las digan voces apagadas, ag\u00f3nicas o an\u00f3nimas. Palabras que rompen la coraza de los relatos \u00fanicos y revelan sus inconsistencias y contradicciones, reafirmando que \u201caun en el tiempo de los metadatos\u201d  -como escribi\u00f3 Yolanda Reyes-, \u201csiempre hay datos que faltan\u201d.   Entre todos los v\u00eddeos que a finales de junio registraron las horas en […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9215,"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9213\/revisions\/9215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openvaluefoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}