Ablaye Boye arrived in Tenerife at the age of 16. Despite his young age, he ended up in prison accused of being the captain of the boat he arrived on the islands with. He spent a year and nine months behind bars. Despite trying to alert them about his minority age, no one believed him as he had no documentation and upon arrival, he told the police he was 19 years old out of fear of being trapped in a juvenile detention centre.
Behind the walls of a prison, where time seems to stand still and hope often fades away, the story of Ablaye Boye emerges. This young Gambian arrived in Tenerife in October 2021, at just 16 years old. Alone. Without the support of an adult to look out for him. On land awaited an unimaginable fate for a young European of his age: prison. Boye left Gambia, where poverty is a daily reality, with the dream of a better life. He boarded a small boat with 71 other people and set sail from the coast of Mauritania. Upon arrival in the Islands, he was warned that if he revealed his true age, he would be sent to a facility until he turned 18. Fear, uncertainty, lack of knowledge, and being unprotected led him to lie. He told the police he was 19. This lie worked against him when some of his fellow travelers pointed him out as the captain of the boat. The next thing he knew, he was placed in preventive custody in Tenerife II prison.
«At that moment, I thought my life was ruined,» recalls Boye, who spent a year and nine months behind bars until the Justice system acknowledged that he was imprisoned when he was a minor. «In prison, you go crazy. Despite insisting that I was underage, no one helped me,» explains the young Gambian, who shared a cell with another boy accused of the same crime and who was also released when it was proven that he was 16 years old. «My only interest there was to learn Spanish. I attended classes and studied with books non-stop,» explains Boye, who admits that he had good and bad days. Days when “there were issues with the whites” and days when “there were issues with compatriots”. His mental strength helped him overcome his time behind bars. He avoided thinking about the outside world and focused on educating himself.
Ablaye Boye, near the Auditorio de Tenerife. / Andrés Gutiérrez
Boye’s life changed when his case reached a person who collaborates with an organization that works with migrant minors and requested a meeting with him. He told his story and soon the process began to present his documentation. Medical tests were also requested to allow forensic experts to estimate his age. Dealing with bureaucracy in a country like Gambia is not easy, but his mother managed to process the birth certificate confirming that Boye was born in 2005. «I turned 18 in prison,» he states.
In March 2023, Boye was released from prison, but he had nowhere to live as he was now an adult and could not enter the minor protection system. The same girl who helped him get out of prison – who he now considers his sister – accompanied him to an NGO that has taken him in until now. Although he is now free, uncertainty still looms over his life. «I am awaiting judgment and still do not know if it will be as an adult or as a minor,» notes the young man, who has to report to the police station every week to sign. «I still can’t work because I don’t have all the necessary documentation, and I can’t leave the country either,» he laments. Furthermore, Boye is waiting to hear the outcome of his asylum application in a few weeks.
The defence criticises that judges systematically doubt documentation from Gambia
The lawyer handling his defence, Sara Rodríguez, points out that judges systematically question the official documentation from Gambia and denounces the irregularities that occurred during the age determination process for Boye. «Although the investigating judge released him from prison for being a minor, he did not officially declare his minority and did not refer the case to the juvenile jurisdiction. Therefore, he cannot be tried directly in the juvenile court,» explains the lawyer. Boye is awaiting his passport from Gambia, which will strengthen his defence as a minor. Additionally, Rodríguez laments the slowness with which the Justice system responds to an issue that should be urgent, as this young man cannot move on with his life and migration plans until his case is definitively resolved.
Up to eight years in prison
The typical sentence for those who act as captains of the boats ranges from four to eight years in prison. If it is proven that they are not part of an organization and are just the end of a chain, the sentence is reduced by one level and the Prosecutor requests three years in prison. However, when there is evidence that they are professional captains, the Prosecutor seeks four or five years, plus an additional one to three years if people have died due to their poor navigation skills during the journey.
But, why was Boye accused of being the captain of his boat? Since he was 14, the young man started working at sea and was forced to drop out of school to fish. For two years, he laboured with fishing nets, spent long days at sea, learned to handle boats, and got used to the darkness of the night in the middle of the Atlantic. When he boarded the boat that brought him to the Canary Islands, Boye was an expert in seafaring life. During the six-day journey, he remained calm and the navigation did not affect him. «People were losing their minds, thinking they were going to die,» recounts the young man, who is relieved that no lives were lost during the journey and that the trip was «calm». However, he remembers that three days after setting off, they ran out of food and water. His experience at sea and his confidence in reaching land made his fellow boat travellers think he was one of the organizers of the expedition.
His boat took six days to arrive from Mauritania; the last three days were without food or water
Boye’s case is not unique in the Canary Islands. On Friday, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Court denied freedom to another young Gambian who has been imprisoned for almost five months, as they doubt the authenticity of the birth certificate he is using to prove he is a minor. His defence team – shared with Boye – announced that they will lodge a complaint with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, urging Spain to comply with international conventions, respect the boy’s documents, and treat him as a minor.
Additionally, in December, two young Senegalese men were remanded in custody at Las Palmas II prison – also under investigation for being the captains of a fragile boat. Two months later, it was proven that one of them was a minor and the second managed to be released from prison last week. His release came just three days after the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child demanded that Spain take precautionary measures so the young man would not remain detained among adults.
Subscribe to continue reading
