[LINK] "Africans test Argentinian hospitality"

[rfmcdonald]

The Guardian Weekly has reproduced Christine Legrand's Le Monde article about the wave of African immigrants arriving in Argentina.

Gaola, 22, works on Avenida 9 de Julio in Buenos Aires, the capital’s main thoroughfare. He has been in Argentina for a year and sells trinkets and sunglasses in the street, wearing a white, Lions of Teranga jersey, marking his support for Senegal’s national soccer team. He loves to talk about football, which is what he likes best about Argentina, but is less forthcoming about how he got here and whether he has all the right documents.

With Europe increasingly difficult to enter, growing numbers of African migrants are seeking asylum in Argentina, trying to escape poverty more than outright persecution. In the last two years the number of people with refugee status in Argentina has more than doubled and the majority of applicants are from Senegal, though no accurate figures are available.

According to the Refugees Agency in Buenos Aires prospective African immigrants obtain a visa for Brazil. From there they travel to Argentina. Those who lack the funds to take a plane stow away on freighters for the three-week crossing.

The Catholic Committee for Immigration is demanding stricter controls for new arrivals. It alleges that the authorities reject applications for residence permits but do not deport the Africans, who stay in the country without any proper status, an easy prey for people-trafficking networks.

Once a promised land for migrants, Argentina has been hard hit by unemployment and is in no position to cope with a large influx of illegal immigrants. Nearly half the population operates in the underground economy, with neither welfare nor pensions, and now the Africans are swelling their ranks.

Many Senegalese live in Once, a working class district traditionally home to the Jewish community. It has recently seen the arrival of Asian stores, Paraguayan street vendors and native Americans from the poor northern provinces, who peddle vegetables and spices in the street.