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It was recorded as one of the most heartbreaking moments in an unprecedented migration crisis on the Spanish coast.
Over 8,000 irregular immigrants, including 1,500 minors, arrived between Monday and Tuesday in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from the neighboring country, Morocco.
This is a record number that goes far beyond statistics.
The images showed young people arriving swim to Tarajal beach from Ceuta.
There, Spanish security guards and Red Cross volunteers were waiting for them.
In the midst of a chaotic moment, one of the immigrants could be seen as desperate, weeping inconsolably.
A soldier and a young woman from the humanitarian organization tried to calm him down. But a few minutes later, it was she who took care of him, led him to large stones, where he made him sit down and began to give him water.
There, the cameras captured a photo that has become iconic: the moving embrace between the young sub-Saharan woman and volunteer Luna Reyes.
“I was desperate, the act of hugging myself was like your life jacket for him, ”Reyes said in an interview with the Spanish TV channel RTVE.
For the 20-year-old, helping immigrants fleeing their country for different reasons is what “everyone will have to do”.
“Don’t throw them away, but listen to them, comfort them, give them a blanket, food, water and give them what they need.”
“One of the youngest”
Isabel Brasero, spokesperson for the Ceuta Red Cross, told BBC Mundo that Reyes was part of the operation that had been activated on the beach to help immigrants coming out of the water, after having traveled several kilometers .
“This person came crying because she had just told him that a friend he had made the trip with had died. Then he found out it hadn’t been like that.”
“In the face of so much desolation, the first thing he did was hug the first person he met, who in this case was Luna,” Brasero says.
In these types of operations, the Red Cross provides health and humanitarian care “to whoever arrives”.
“We check that he has no ailments that affect him and, later, we start with humanitarian aid, which consists of giving him water, food, clothes, blankets, everything. who can cover his basic needs“.
“Luna is one of the younger ones, she understands very well what was going on, because she has been doing this type of work for a long time.”
“It’s very moving because, even though we’re used to it being our job and seeing a lot of dramas of different characteristics in everyone we serve over the years, that doesn’t mean we have feelings.
And it is that the TV footage shows how Reyes tries to help the immigrant, hugs and caresses him. He was sitting on a rock, she in front of him, on her knees.
“It’s very hard that you don’t empathize with the person, it’s very hard that after you give help like this, you go home, click and disconnect. It’s impossible“, explains the spokesperson.
But besides this strong emotional charge, when Reyes arrived home, she found another situation that affected her as well.
“Quite low”
The image that began to circulate on the Internet and in the media aroused both praise and questioning.
Reyes was attacked to such an extent that she had to shut down her social media accounts.
“We do not understand how to do the job well, without receiving anything in return because she is a volunteer, criticism and insults“, says Brasero.
“Okay, you don’t agree with some working methods, but you don’t have to go as far as insults and personal disqualification.”
“Critics come from many people, who tell him about everything. It’s not that these are bands as such, but there are people who think what Luna has done is not right. There are all kinds of criticism, macho, racist. ”
“She is quite downcast, sad, a lot of feelings because after having done her job to the best of her ability, bringing this dose of humanity that the Red Cross carries in her genes, after having done all this work with all her heart , receives all these criticisms, you can imagine, she is quite sorry ”.
The fact that such a human photo has become the target of criticism is something that “cannot be understood”.
“I understand and the Red Cross understands that there can be opinions for all tastes, because for that there is free opinion, free thought.”
“But it is difficult for us to understand it because the motto of the Red Cross is to alleviate human suffering in all its forms and this is a clear demonstration of that.”
However, Reyes also received a shower of messages, not only from Spain but from different parts of the world, expressing his admiration, solidarity and support for his gesture and work.
“We appreciate all the support we receive, it gives us a lot of strength to continue,” says Brasero.
“The Red Cross will continue to work regardless of race, creed or political sign, under no circumstances will the Red Cross cease to be human or stop supporting actions like Luna’s.”
“Many other moons”
Brasero indicates that although few photos could have been captured on that day “because we had to work more than getting there, surely if we had devoted ourselves to looking for images of this type we would have found many other moons on the same beach “.
“Anyone in the same situation, who has a minimum of compassion, empathy, would have had the same.”
Melilla and Ceuta are two Spanish cities located in North Africa, on the border with Morocco and bordered by the Mediterranean Sea. Are the single point of land entry into the EU of this continent.
This makes these cities the target of thousands of migrants each year, many of whom are motivated by economic reasons and others fleeing armed conflict or persecution who aspire to be granted refugee status.
Reyes receives psychological help for the negative messages he has received on social media.
“We do not expect or understand that after doing this job, you come home and see that in your social networks they criticize you for what you have done, when it is a worthy job. praise, when for us it’s part of the day and we will do it again and Moon, when you recover, keep doing it“.
For this Wednesday, if the arrivals were still recorded, they became punctual, in very small groups and more distant, taking into account the increase of the police presence on the Moroccan side, with the accesses to Ceuta closed, and the “constant rejections to the border”. “with which they met upon their arrival on Spanish soil.
Many of those who managed to get there regained their passes.
Brasero says he doesn’t know the whereabouts of the boy Reyes helped, “but we know he’s healthy.”
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