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Madrid, Spain – It’s afternoon and La Pelu de Maakum or Maakum Barbershop has just opened in the Spanish region of Madrid.
Reggaeton music plays from the speakers, the air conditioning is very good and Mohamed Elhkchin, a 17-year-old from Morocco, scans the floor.
It could be the scene of any barber shop in Getafe with a population of 180,000.
But a closer look suggests that it is a more special place.
The toilet sign is in Arabic, the poster calls for “today’s culture, tomorrow’s future” and the shop window features T-shirts with the Maakum Ceuta Association logo, a non-profit that helps non-profit migrant children and young people. arrive only in Spain.
Unlike other barbershops in the area, La Pelu de Maakum offers more than just haircuts. It offers young migrants the opportunity to have a better future.
Founded by the Maakum Ceuta Association in April, the initiative aims to address one of the biggest challenges for children who come to Spain alone: how to get a home when they turn 18 years old.
Non-migrant friends who enter the country illegally are placed in state custody until they reach the age of majority. After that, they are on their own.
Most find themselves trapped in 22 bureaucratic traps – they can’t find work because they don’t have a place to live, and they can’t get a place to live because they don’t have a job.
Without paper, they can be deported at any time, and they are also at greater risk of exploitation.
That is the situation that La Pelu de Maakum is trying to avoid.
The idea is simple: young people who are no longer in state custody are given a contract to work as a barber and once they are fully trained and settled, they pass it on to another person.
“I turn 18 in August and I wasn’t sure I would end up on the street,” Mohamed said, sitting on a red barber sofa chair.
“But if I work here and have a little money saved, I can rent a place to live, even if it’s just a room. And the most important thing is to be able to renew my roles. “
Like many of the previous ones, Mohamed moved to the Spanish slave Ceuta in North Africa from Morocco in 2019 in search of a better life.
“It was clear in Morocco that I would not have a good future. So I thought, ‘I’m still young, I can still make a future for myself and help myself and my family,’ ”she explains.
He stayed in Ceuta for six months and was then taken to a children’s center in Madrid.
These facilities are run by the regional government and are also responsible for providing education and training. But the level of attention often remains.
“There are employees in your centers who can’t,” Mohamed said. “They have a normal life, they have no problems and they can’t see things from your point of view.”
That is also a problem in Spain in general.
Mohamed says people pack their bags when the Metro is on the train, ignore him if he asks for directions on the street, and would never call him if he had to make a cell phone call.
“We’ve always tried to do as much as possible to get people to have a good opinion of us, to show that we’ve come for a reason. We have come here to work, to help our families, but a Moroccan comes out and steals and we are all evil, we are all guilty, ”he said.
Otman Elbardai nodded in agreement.
Like Mohamed, he crossed over to Ceuta from Morocco and ended up in Madrid.
At the age of 18, he became the first employee of La Pelu de Makuum.
She is happy to be in the barber shop, but is not sure that it will change the negative perceptions of immigrants.
“People have an idea in their head and that’s it.”
It can be hard work, but Joana Mellan, one of the five founders of the Maakum Ceuta Association, says it is crucial.
“Change is necessary and change begins with awareness, seeing these guys from a different perspective: people who are not as dangerous as they are dangerous, because they are ultimately the first victims of abuse and the first victims of rights violations,” he said.
This message is becoming increasingly difficult as the far right intensifies its attacks on immigration.
Ahead of the Madrid regional elections in May, the Vox party put up a campaign poster with the message: “4,700 euros a month for an ore [the Spanish acronym of an unaccompanied migrant minor]. 426 euros a month for your grandmother’s pension ”- the numbers did not add up.
VOX election propaganda at Sol station. A poster of manipulated data pointing to a vulnerable group like foreign minors. But arrests for hate crimes will be for rap and social movements that denounce racism???? pic.twitter.com/rdHlakgKSa
– Javier Sánchez Serna (@J_Sanchez_Serna) April 20, 2021
The recent crisis in Ceuta, when thousands of young people moved to Spanish territory in just a few days, has only sparked tensions.
Political science professor Augusto Delkáder believes that La Pelu de Makuum is “very positive” but that a more sustainable solution is needed.
“It makes us feel uneasy when non-governmental organizations and small organizations pursue an integration policy when it should be the responsibility of the state,” he said.
“These people have to be given papers automatically; otherwise, there are only two options for them: deportation or living in hiding. “
La Pelu de Maakum has saved Mohamed from this fate.
He is now happy at work.
“My family is very proud of me. Even though I haven’t done so much and I haven’t been able to help, I’m on the right track. “
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