Smiling broadly, perhaps to hide their nervousness, dozens of young African migrants wearing swimming goggles took their first strokes and exhaled into knee-deep water on a Tenerife beach, led by Spanish volunteer instructors.
Many are suffering from water trauma after a perilous crossing to the Canary Islands from countries such as Senegal or Mauritania crammed into precarious boats. Some barely survived and others lost family members or friends to the ocean.
Migration rights group Walking Borders said a report last report that nearly 5,000 migrants, an unprecedented number, have died at sea in the same period on that route.
“I wouldn’t do it again. It’s very difficult, very, very dangerous. It’s a risk we took, because we didn’t have a choice. It’s tough in Mali,” said Mamadou M Bathily, a 24-year-old trained IT specialist, who came to Tenerife a week ago via Senegal along with 215 others.
