This is simply smuggling with his life, hiding on the rudder at the bottom of the tanker for 11 days, arriving in Spain from Nigeria, and only to be repatriated before he landed!
Recently, foreign media reported that 4 stowaways were found in the Canary Islands, Spain. Unlike other smugglers, the four men huddled in the narrow rudder of a tanker from Nigeria and endured 11 days at sea, covering about 3,220 kilometers.
A local government spokesman said they were all suffering from hypothermia and dehydration when they were found and had been taken to local hospitals. Under Spanish law, any stowaways who do not seek asylum must be returned by the ship's operator to the port of origin. In other words, what awaits them will be deportation.
It's hard to imagine how they spent 11 days at sea without food and fresh water, and if they were not careful, they could be killed. But, as local officials say: "This is not the first and will not be the last".
In 2020, a 14-year-old Nigerian boy hid in the rudder of a ship setting sail from the port of Lagos and arrived in Spain after spending 15 days at sea. In recent years, thousands of African migrants and refugees have been smuggled into the Spanish Canary Islands by various dangerous means from the coasts of Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and even Senegal.
According to the Spanish Interior Ministry, more than 11,600 people have been smuggled into the Spanish archipelago so far this year.
