Fill the gaps using these key words from the text:

emigrate people smuggler compass coastguards

deport illegal immigrant migrant skipper

1. An ____________ is a person who comes to work and live in a country

without permission.
2. A ____________ is a person who gets money for taking people from
one country to another illegally.
3. A ____________ is a person who leaves his country to look for work in
another country.
4. A ____________ is the captain of a boat.
5. If you ____________ , you leave your country to go to another country.
6. ____________ are the people who stop people bringing illegal goods
or people into a country by boat.
7. If you ____________ someone, you send them out of a country
because they have no legal right to be there.
8. A ____________ is an instrument with a small needle that always
points to the north.

Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible:

1. Where is Mali? _________________________

2. Where is Fuerteventura? _________________________
3. Where are Rabat and Casablanca? _________________________
4. What is the capital of Mali? _________________________
5. What is the capital of Western Sahara? _________________________
6. How much did Yaouba earn in Algeria and Libya?
_________________________

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It's a long way from Mali to Madrid / Cécile Chambraud meets two African
migrants whose journey to Europe has taken them five years

Mady Tounkara, 25, and Yaouba Kone, 26, both come from villages near
Kayes, in southwest Mali. Now they are in the Madrid in Spain. In a few hours
one of them is leaving for Valencia, the other is going to the province of
Huelva, in Andalusia in the south of Spain. A friend has told them they might
find work on farms there. They have been travelling together for five years
from the cotton fields of the poor West African country of Mali to Europe. They
reached Europe after a dangerous boat trip from the coast of Western Sahara
to Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands.

Back in Mali, Mady and Yaouba’s families grow cotton and everyone helps.
There are 10 children in Mady’s family and 15 in Yaouba's. Cotton is the only
crop in the region. They sell it for $0.40 a kilo and this is not enough money to
live on. They do not have enough money for all the children to get married.
Three of Mady’s brothers and sisters are older than Mady, but only two have
been able to marry and start a family. When the rain failed and the crop was
poor, Mady and Yaouba each travelled to the capital, Bamako to try and find
work. They hoped to earn enough to buy food for the whole family. They met
in Bamako and decided to emigrate to Europe together.

‘A lot of young people in Mali want to emigrate,’ says Mady. ‘We started out
on May 15, 2001 I had 100,000 CFA francs ($180),’ says Yaouba. It wasn’t
enough to pay for the journey to Europe. So the two men took the road to the
north, hoping to earn some more money on the way. They worked in the fields
of the Djanet oasis, in southeast Algeria. Then they returned to Mali. After that
they tried Libya. From there they went to Morocco, stopping in Rabat and
Casablanca, and finally came to El-Aaiun, the capital of Western Sahara, in
March. Somehow they saved some money during the five years they were
away from home.

‘I earned $1,800 in Algeria and Libya,’ says Yaouba. They had enough money
to buy two seats on a boat from a Moroccan people smuggler in El-Aaiun. ‘We
paid $1,300 each. Apart from the boat’s skipper, there were 34 of us on the
boat and we all paid the same,’ says Yaouba. Just before the boat left, the
people smuggler made them take their clothes off. He searched them for
mobile phones and hidden cash. ‘He found the $180 I had hidden in my shoes
and in the collar of my shirt,’ says Mady. The smuggler also stole their clothes
and shoes. They only had a pair of trousers and a T-shirt each to protect them
from the cool ocean wind.

After an 11-hour boat journey, with just a compass to show them the way,
they reached Fuerteventura, the Canary island nearest to Africa. The Spanish

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coastguards picked up the 34 passengers and took them to dry land. They
took them to the Red Cross, which gave them a check-up, a change of
clothes and food.

A court gave them a deportation order 72 hours later. However, it is very

difficult for the authorities to deport migrants because they do not usually have
any identity papers. While they were waiting to be deported, Mady and
Yaouba were kept in prison. ‘We were well treated,’ they say. Then, on May
18, the police took the two men to the island's airport and put them on a
plane. ‘We had no idea where we were going,’ they say. When the number of
migrants arriving in the Canary Islands started to rise, in 2000, the Spanish
authorities started to transfer most of them to different parts of Spain,
particularly Madrid, Catalonia and Valencia. Mady and Yaouba were flown to
Madrid and handed over to the Red Cross.

‘When they first arrive,’ says Nuria Baz, the head of the organisation's
immigration programme, ‘we interview them to find out what they need. If they
know someone, and they usually do, we try to put them in contact with that
person. We give them meals, teach them Spanish, sometimes we even teach
them how to read and write. We also help them find their way around. If
necessary, they can stay here for three months. The most important thing is
that they can look after themselves.’ In 2005, the Madrid branch of the Red
Cross received 1,572 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Mady and Yaouba
cannot work legally without official papers, but they are free. In a few hours
they will begin their new lives. The Red Cross gave them EUR60 each when
they left.

The authorities have stopped boats with more than 7,500 sub-Saharan
Africans off the coast of the Canary Islands since January. Now the Spanish
prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has asked the European Union
and the African countries from which the migrants come, to help to solve the
problem.

The European Union is sending more boats and planes to patrol the sea
around the Canary Islands. It is also giving money to build two reception
centres for deported migrants in Mauritania and Senegal. Meanwhile the
Spanish secretary of state for foreign affairs has visited eight African countries
to ask them to take illegal immigrants back.

Match the beginnings and endings of the sentences:

1. Mady and Yaouda left Mali …

2. They paid the people smuggler $1,300 each …

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 3. The Red Cross helps illegal immigrants …
4. The Spanish prime minister has asked the European Union …
5. They used a compass …
6. $180 wasn’t enough …
7. The Red Cross try …
8. They only had trousers and a t-shirt …

a) to find the way.

b) to look after themselves.
c) to put them in contact with someone they know.
d) to get from Africa to the Canary Islands.
e) to try and find work in Europe.
f) to protect them from the wind.
g) to pay for the journey to Europe.
h) to help to solve the problem.

Match the verbs with the nouns to make collocations:

1. earn a clothes
2. start b a problem
3. find c a journey
4. save d a family
5. take off e. work
6. solve f. money
7. grow g. money
8. pay for h. cotton

Find the opposites of these words in the text:

1. legal ____________
2. rich ____________
3. safe ____________
4. wet ____________
5. easy ____________
6. warm ____________
.

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Complete these phrases using prepositions. Check your answers in the
text:

1. find work _______ a farm

2. they sell the cotton _______ $0.40 a kilo
3. _______ May 15
4. to earn more money _______ the way
5. _______ the five years they were away from home
6. to protect them _______ the wind
7. they were kept _______ prison
8. they cannot work _______ official papers

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KEY

Level 1 Elementary

1 Key words

1 illegal immigrant
2 people smuggler
3 migrant
4 skipper
5 emigrate
6 coastguards
7 deport
8 compass

2 Find the information

1 West Africa
2 The Canary Islands (Spain)
3 Morocco
4 Bamako
5 El-Aaiun
6 $1,800

3 Comprehension check

1 e; 2 d; 3 b; 4 h; 5 a; 6 g; 7 c; 8 f

4 Vocabulary 1 Collocations

1 f ( g ); 2 d; 3 e; 4 g ( f ); 5 a; 6 b; 7 h; 8 c

5 Vocabulary 2 Opposites

1 illegal; 2 poor; 3 dangerous; 4 dry; 5 difficult; 6 cool

6 Vocabulary 3 Prepositions

1 on; 2 for; 3 on; 4 on; 5 during; 6 from; 7 in; 8 without

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