Spaniard uses his garage as language school for migrants

AS AUTHORITIES on Spain’s Canary Islands struggle to accommodate a sharp rise in the number of migrants arriving on its shores, a local man has turned his garage into a classroom to teach arrivals Spanish.

Between January and mid-July, 7 260 people landed on the Canary Islands in the Atlantic after making the perilous sea journey, compared to 2 800 in the same period last year,the Spanish Interior Ministry said.

Authorities attribute this increase to the impact of Covid-19 on tourism and other industries in north and sub-Saharan Africa, pushing many more to leave home for Europe.

Tito Martin, who lives in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, was inspired to start his makeshift language school after noticing there were not enough resources for the growing number of migrant arrivals. In Martin’s garage, among his van, bikes and surfboard, a group of young men sit writing down the Spanish alphabet.

“I want to learn Spanish. Before I lived in Senegal, I’d never been to school,” said Mar Low, 25, who arrived eight months ago and now attends Spanish lessons three times a week.

Low spent 14 days at sea, five without food or water, before his boat was picked up by a Spanish rescue ship. “If they hadn’t helped us we would all have died,” he said.

Martin offers migrants a safe haven – where they can shower, grab a bite to eat and learn Spanish. “What I have had from them is gratitude, despite their desperate situation.”