Tens of thousands of people, says the Ministry of the Interior, have swum the distance separating one side of the border from the other and have managed to reach Ceuta, the theoretical Europe. Of all of them, dozens have drowned. That swimming for kilometers is dangerous, even artificial intelligence tells you, which always agrees with you.
We see harrowing images. Young boys, running uncontrollably through the city, fleeing the police. Some women with their heads covered and long dresses, making you wonder how they must have survived the water, and a beach full of tires. Those that they have all used to arrive by sea. All these tires are "recreational". They have "fun" designs, intended for a beach day. There are quite a few, very large ones, that simulate the wheel — the tire — of a truck, with the drawing and the letters they usually carry. Others have simple drawings of palm trees and crocodiles. And at the very least there is one that is yellow and has the duck's head in relief. It's that child's tire, which we've all seen at some point. I'm always moved when on the train I see a family going to the beach, with umbrellas and a small cooler, and I see that the children are already wearing the duck tire.
This tire only fits one child or someone very thin and would not withstand any furious onslaught of the water. I don't know if the one who was wearing it arrived alive, if they have already returned it to the beach from which they left after paying the return mafia, or if they are hidden among the containers in Ceuta, looking for food and shelter, with all the others, who are also looking for it, trying to escape from all the others. I don't know if it was one of the dozens of drowned, out of the fifty thousand, and the last thing they saw was the friendly head of the duck.
