The Invisible Women

This is an ugly story, although the ladies in it are called Beauty, Precious or Happiness. These names in Nigeria are as common as Jane in England or Maria in Spain. Names chosen to evoke high valued dreams and to ward off or avert the contrary reality, and the inevitable abject destiny most of them are facing. They are condemned to such misery simply for having been born black, female and poor. Nearly everyday there are immigrants coming into Spain from Nigeria, the Sahara or Somalia. Mostly in rickety boats too crowded beyond their capacity, with little or no shelter, hardly any food and insufficient water. Rarely all make it to the intended destination. Those who died of hunger, exhaustion or sickness, often combination of all three, were simply unceremoniously thrown into the sea. The survivors, on reaching land, are immediately locked up, forced to prostitution to pay off their passage that takes an average of 30 months, during which they live in subhuman conditions, forced to prostitute themselves minimum 10 times a day. And these are told by their 'jailers' that they are the lucky ones. The organisation 'Women's Link' has just published the much needed information regarding immigration with all related issues, and provides help where it's needed. The tragedy in Lancelot where 15 girls, all minors, drowned only 20 kilometres from the promised shore, really shook up the society, and that was just one of the many similar cases, with the only difference in the number of dead passengers, including men, women, teens, young children, and babies. Even in broad daylight, one can spot these unfortunate girls dotted about some motorways or some dark street corners. Behind each we know there's a whole string of others, invisible ones. Women immigrants, victims seeking a better future in the ultra modern 21st century. I don't know about what or how much the authorities are doing to try to solve the urgent problem. All I know is that we can't pretend such horror and tragedy didn't exist; or avoid talking about it because it's so unpleasant. Tags:immigrants,invisiblewomen

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