Boarding a shepherd from the African coast and embarking on the risky journey to the Canary Islands via the deadliest route in the world is, for many immigrants, the only way to live. All or nothing. Cheick (fictitious name), a young Senegalese man who suffers from a heart injury from birth and who arrived in El Hierro a few days ago on board a shepherd, knows this well. His only goal is to survive the crossing so that he can be treated for his illness when he arrives in Spain.
His fate in Senegal, without the treatment he is already receiving in our country, was clear: death would come in a few months or maybe a few years. He took a risk and succeeded. Like him, several immigrants have arrived on the islands with pathologies that require treatment, some minor, such as a nine-year-old boy who arrived a few weeks ago with a tumor on his cheek and on the way was diverted to Tenerife, where he also they are already treating it.
“They know that the pastera is their only possibility”, explains Teresa Cotonat Vives from Pallares, “the pediatrician” of El Hierro for the last 23 years, a reference to the island and that, since the migration crisis in the Canary Islands began by the end of June, it has been completely devoted to the assistance and aid of the arriving immigrants. He already did it during the “herdsmen crisis”, between 2006 and 2009.
Cotonat, 68 years old and a native of Sort, continues at the foot of the canyon attending to the children of El Hierro 24 hours a day – she is always available by mobile phone for any inquiries – and when a boat arrives she altruistically walks from dock to lend a hand. In addition, it is always operational if you need to attend to any of the adult immigrants at the San Andrés reception center. “I do it because I like it, no one is forcing me to do it”, he points out.
Unaccompanied immigrant minors also pass through their hands. Sometimes, when small children arrive without an adult and require hospitalization, she herself stays the night with them. “The children are the ones who do the best physically, partly because they are fed with mother’s milk and because they treat them very well”, says Cotonat, who, for now, has no intention of retiring. “As long as I can, I will continue, helping in everything I can”, he says. Her dedication to children is complete and that is why she was recognized at the beginning of this year with the Civil Cross of the Order of Health. This year he was also awarded the Canary Islands Gold Medal.
As he explains, the elders sometimes arrive in a complicated state of health, with sunburns, sores and wounds that require care from the hours of crowding in the pasture. “They have a terrible time, because curing this is expensive”, he says. After initial care, they go to the reception center and in 24-48 hours they are referred to other islands, and then to the Peninsula. The minors, who are under the care of the Government of the Canary Islands, have their medical history taken, an analysis is done and they are given three vaccines: hepatitis B, polio and the triple viral. “They don’t like needles at all,” he says.
Yesterday there were 169 minors in El Hierro, but there have come to be nearly 400 in a population, in fact, of 10,000 inhabitants (there are about 11,000 in the census). The ESO center in El Hierro only has 300 students. Hence the concern of the president of the island’s town council, Alpidio Armas, and his claim to the Government of the , which is the one that protects the mines, to distribute them to larger islands with more resources.
Cotonat emphasizes that all minor boys provide the same date of birth when they arrive: January 1. “Some from 2007, others from 2008… but they were all born on the same day. The birthday will be massive”, says the pediatrician jokingly, noting that all the boys who are at El Hierro are waiting for the bone test to be done. Of the 3,300 unaccompanied minors currently on the islands – 347 are expected to be transferred to other communities in the coming weeks – nearly 1,800 are awaiting this test to confirm their age.
The pediatrician from Sort and one of the most beloved people in El Hierro remarks “how affectionate the minors who arrive on the island are”. “They give you kisses and hugs. If I could, I would take them home,” he says. She points out that the work is “very, very hard, because it’s difficult to help everyone”, although she admits that lending a hand makes her feel good about herself.
Of the minors who have arrived in this upswing, he remembers a four-year-old boy who did nothing but cry. He didn’t want to eat or be with anyone or play with anything. Nothing consoled him. “We bought him a bear, clothes, a car…, but in the end what we did was call the person he had arrived with, who was his uncle. The National Police took him and everything happened to him”, he explains.
The arrival of boats experienced another very intense day on the islands yesterday. Eleven boats with more than 800 people (around half in El Hierro) had arrived in the Canaries last night. The minors numbered more than fifty and at least one baby. “It’s non-stop, when you go a few hours without being called, it surprises you. You live all the time waiting for one to arrive,” says Cotonat.
