(AFP) When he stepped onto the rickety boat which would take him from Africa to the Canary Islands, 16-year-old Madassa Mohammed didn’t know about the coronavirus epidemic which was sweeping across Europe.
But even if he had, it wouldn’t have stopped him or any of the thousands of other African migrants who have been arriving in droves on the Spanish archipelago.
From a farming family in Mauritania, Mohammed said he came looking for work after his father died, leaving them penniless.
“I’m the oldest and the one who needs to earn the money. My siblings are too young,” he explained at a safe house for unaccompanied minors in Telde on Gran Canaria.
