Mamadou: "I'll be fine the day I have my residence permit"
Mamadou in front of a strawberry crop. Photography: Carmen Valiente
Resolution of the asylum application: denied. Currently managing the application for labor roots.
Mamadou, 32, left his homeland due to the armed conflict in the Casamance region (Senegal) since 1982. He applied for asylum in 2017 upon landing at Barajas Airport (Madrid).
Mamadou awaits us in front of the fence that surrounds the strawberry fields where he works and lives . There, dozens of people crowd around a bus that will take them to the supermarket. The farm is only accessible by private transport and is located several kilometers from the closest towns.
We meet again, after these years, in a different province: Huelva . Only twenty days ago he came to this farm to work without a contract as a day laborer . "It is very hard work ," he admits as he sits in one of the plastic chairs that he has taken out of the barracks where he lives. In it there are only the basics: a white plastic table with several chairs, a simple kitchen, a bathroom and two rooms with two bunk beds each. About thirty square meters at most where eight people live together .
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QUESTION. First of all, how are you?
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ANSWER. More or less well (laughs) , at least I'm working. I'll be fine the day I have my residence permit. It is not easy to live without papers, but no one can escape their destiny.
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Despite belonging to the sixty percent of people to whom Spain denies the asylum application, the Senegalese maintain the positive attitude that characterizes him . It is something that draws the attention of those around him and that makes his colleagues at the Refugee Reception Center (CAR) remember him with affection and good words. Currently, he is waiting for the criminal record certificate to be sent to continue processing his application for labor roots.
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The armed conflict that led Mamadou to leave the Casamance region is classified as a low intensity civil war . In it, the Senegalese government has faced since 1982 the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) that demands the independence of the region. One night, the rebels appeared at the place where Mamadou lived: " They came to take the youngest to the forest and recruit them . If you refuse, they will kill you. I have many friends who have died like this . When they came, I spent the whole night running. As I was in a town near the border, I ran across to Gambia. There, a person helped me and gave me money to pay for a bus to Dakar. " In the capital he lived with his grandmother, since his parents died when he was still a child.
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While answering questions in 2018, it was striking how he was able to make himself understood in Spanish despite having only been in the country for six months. He said that it was the first objective he set and that, when the Spanish classes organized at the center ended each day, he went to the computer room to continue studying it.
Mamadou sitting on a mountain of coconuts in Senegal. Photo courtesy
In 2018, Mamadou wanted to study cooking and she did. While he had a work permit, he was a kitchen assistant in two restaurants , but once he was denied asylum and with the onset of the pandemic, it was impossible for him to get another job in the sector. Since then, he has worked as a day laborer in different types of crops. For him, "the most important thing is to pay the rent ."
Q. What are your current goals?
R. My main objective is to get the papers. Afterwards, I want to study administration and I would also like to open a Senegalese food restaurant in Seville.
Upon boarding the plane to Russia, Mamadou planned to stay in Spain. For this reason, while he was making a stopover in Madrid, he requested asylum from the airport police . Before arriving, he admired Spanish football. Now, he confesses that in addition to this sport, he also loves the kindness of the people and living in Seville, a city from which he has only left in these three years to come to the farm where he currently works:
Despite his optimism in the face of difficulties, Mamadou is down to earth and knew that starting from scratch in Spain would not be an easy task.
Q. Do you have the life you expected when you came?
R. I am a person, how do you say ... I am very optimistic, right? And very simple too, but I have the conscience. He knew that by coming here he would not have all the gold in the world. There are people from Spain who live here who don't have everything, people who were born here. I am not from Spain, but I can say that I am more or less well. They do not. I see many Spaniards on the street. So I can't say that I thought when I got to Seville or Spain that in one day, two days or a year I would have all the money in the world. That was in my head that it was impossible. It is possible if you do bad things. But I want to earn and live my life with effort and work.
In his spare time he likes to play sports, go for a walk and have a drink with his friends. In Spain he has learned to practice slackline , a balancing sport that consists of walking on an elastic band. He also enjoys cooking Senegalese and Spanish recipes. Often, between questions, he talks about the gastronomy of both countries, the typical Senegalese rice dishes and how much he likes to eat paella and potato omelette.
While living on the strawberry farm, she takes advantage of the extra hours she can whenever she can . This ensures some savings for those times when you do not have a job and cannot collect unemployment due to not having your residence in the country regularized.
Q. You have improved your Spanish a lot and you say that you have many friends here. Do you feel integrated?
A. Yes, but not one hundred percent. I need to have the papers.
Mamadou poses smiling. Photography: Carmen Valiente