Headline April 15, 2018/ ''' LEAVING YOUR COUNTRY? '''

''' LEAVING YOUR COUNTRY? '''

THE TRIP - NOT INCLUDING FOOD and emergency supplies, costs about $1,200 all around  -compared with the monthly wage, which is-

Set at about 18,000 dinars just over $100 at common back-market rates. The crossing to Spain takes  one day, two days at most. Never mind that the smugglers are often illegal immigrants who returned home -

And figured out that they could make more money doing this here than doing anything else over  there............

ORAN - ALGERIA : FOR SOME years now, certain videos posted on Facebook, Algerians preferred social network, have been causing a sensation here:

They show groups of young Algerians brandishing smartphones and singing and taking videos of  one another as they laugh, looking at once happy and worried,

Over time, more and more young women and small children appear among them. Diversity maybe frowned upon throughout the country, but it reigns, apparently, on the little vessels that ferry illegal migrants away.

In Algeria, these adventurers are called by strange name : harragas, or border-runners - in other words, *the bold and the crazy*.

The term has long stopped denoting any standard characteristics other than being young, preferably minor; Spanish law, or one, forbids the expulsion of anyone under 18 years of age.

Today, the call of the sea is chiefly heeded by Algerians - students or not, women or men. Sub-Saharans passing through Algeria prefer to head for Europe by overland routes, via Morocco.

This migration, known as the harga, is a problem, of course, because it kills people. But it troubles the Algerian government in a particular way.

That Algerians are voluntarily leaving on such  dangerous journeys  is glaring proof of its numerous political and  economic failures; repression, unemployment and the rising cost of living, among other things.

The escape corridors are well known. From the easternmost part of the country, about 500 kilometers, or 310 miles away, from Algiers, the capital;, the migrants head for Italy. From the region around Oran, to the west, they tend to set or Spain

The harga has its rules by now, what its professionals, its seasons, its fees, - and its success stories.

There is one, notably, about the Algerian migrant who end up marrying an American girl and converting her to Islam.

Mostaganem, my hometown, is a small-coastal city between Algiers and Oran. It was once a lovely weekend destination, with its stilt bungalows by the sea and its sardine restaurants, but today tourism lags for lack of investment.

The government is suspicious of all foreigners.

Algeria sells oil and unlike its neighbors Morocco and Tunisia, it doesn't need money from tourists.

What's more, it is run by a gerontocracy that clings to power by any means and is increasingly out of step with the country's very population : 29 percent of the total is under 15.

Young people suffer from the lack of employment and opportunities, and especially from the lack of leisure activities. Their isolation is reinforced by rising religious feelings.

In Mostaganem, as in other towns and villages throughout, throughout Algeria, there are no movie theaters, no swimming pools, and even no restaurants. So, Mostagenem's beautiful, still-wild coastline is a point of departure.

More than  110 small craft  set out from there in a single week last year, according to the local authorities; 286 Algerians are said to have been intercepted on the open sea and in just three days  in November.

The Mediterranean Sea  regularly throws up the corpses of the drowned, but that doesn't seem to discourage prospective travelers.

The harga's scale is difficult to measure. There are no definitive statistics; very few numbers have been made public.

The data have not been centralized; the harragas fall within the purview of the coast guard, but also the military authorities as well as various ministries.

And then. illegal migration is a sore topic.

The Honor and Saving of the latest Operational Research on Life, Living and Risks, continues. And    The World Students Society thanks researcher and author Kamel Daoud for his opinion.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of Algeria and then the world. See Ya all on !WOW! - the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Dangerous Journeys '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless