Don’t give up! This intent unites them. In Mexico, the first world was held the summit of the mothers of the Disappeared. Women from Africa and Central America shared their experiences.
Hajer Ayachi from Tunisia contributes on your phone the images of her deceased husband and their two in the Mediterranean sea missing children.
“United mothers can never be defeated!” This is the motto of the women met last weekend for the first world summit of mothers of the Disappeared in Mexico city. They came from Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Mauritania, Morocco, El Salvador and Italy. There are moms that attach the pictures of their disappeared children to their dresses or to the back of your mobile phones. There are desperate women who turn over every stone in search of their relatives.
Of 70,000 migrants have disappeared, according to estimates by human rights activists in the past 12 years in Mexico alone. In the Mediterranean, the International organization for Migration (IOM) per year according to between 4000 and 5000 people. Mexico and the Mediterranean sea are cemeteries with these Figures the world’s greatest Migrants.
Fatma Kasraoui, President of the Tunisian Organisation “mothers of the Disappeared”.
“We have had enough of politicians who have no heart. In this moment people die in the Mediterranean,” says Fatma Kasraoui, President of the organization “mothers of the Disappeared” in Tunisia. Your participation in the summit stand long on the Brink, as they and eight other Tunisians had to overcome many entry barriers.
Fatma traveled with her best friend Hajer Atachi to Mexico. Both lost their children somewhere in the Mediterranean. “You actually wanted to leave the country by plane, but received no visa. In March 2011, they tried by sea in Italy to reach”. Since then, the two women heard nothing more of them. Fatma wears everywhere, a framed picture of her son. Hayer has pasted the pictures of her two missing sons on the back of your mobile phone. Last year her husband died. Also his image has you glued to the phone.
A Bag Of Ashes
Sara Meléndez, from Honduras, can tell an encouraging story. After 13 years, she was able to close recently, their son Freddy in the arms. Sara is one of 300 women who have made it their missing relatives again. It is part of a group of Central American mothers from Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, has traveled across the migration route to Mexico to meet with the African women. To each unit and each collecting point for migrants repeat the same questions: Have you seen my son? Have you seen my brother? The search also ends when you return home. Other mothers of the Disappeared in Mexico continue the search according to the motto: “My children are your children – as your children are also mine.”
Mothers from Senegal who travelled to Mexico to form an international network for the search for missing migrants
“For us, the love and the pain that we have to unite,” says Ana Enamorado, which is part of the organizing Committee of the meeting in Mexico city. Many years ago, traveled Enamorado from San Pedro Sula, Honduras to Mexico in search of her son who disappeared in 2010. The government gave her a bag of ashes and told her that it was the Remains of her son. Since it decided to conduct their own Investigations. Since then, she also helps other women in their painful search.
Battle of the mothers on several fronts
“People even come from Italy to Mexico to study our logistics. For two years they have accompanied us on our search caravans to Mexico, to learn how we organize,” says Ana Enamorado. Since many African women are not able to get to Europe to search for their relatives, activists in their place, the migration routes for you.
“People leave their homeland because of the structural violence and mega-projects that displace us,” says community Gomez, a Guatemalan mother. She explains that she must not only cope with the grief, but also the Machismo at home. “For the men in our communities, our place in the house. I long but to travel to Mexico to find our son.”