"Did Pedri born here?". Musa is amazed as he walks along Rodeo Alto road towards the supermarket on La Esperanza road, in Tenerife. He is 18 years old and arrived on the island in a boat a month ago. Since then, he has been at the Emergency Reception and Referral Center of Las Raíces and there he calls himself Musa Pedri, given his admiration for the Barcelona midfielder and the Spanish National Team. But no one had told him that his idol was born in Tegueste, just 12 kilometers away.
"I have to go and see the place. Besides, maybe someone there will appreciate my work cultivating tomatoes," he mumbles in Spanish. He is the only one of the 30 young people who walk towards the supermarket that afternoon who speaks it. They do not know it, but they will soon be the center of attention when Pope Leon XIV visits the controversial Las Raíces complex, built in 2021 in military facilities located in front of the Tenerife Norte-Los Rodeos Airport.
Dependent on the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, it is designed for the initial reception and humanitarian assistance of migrants arriving on the islands and is managed by the NGO Accem, which has not yet received news of the papal visit. "We have no official agenda or anything," explains CrónicaFrancisco Navarro Atiénzar, Territorial Manager of Accem in the Canary Islands. Las Raíces is only for men and currently accommodates 500 people "between 18 and 34 years old", although at the peak of the migration crisis, it housed up to 1,600. 300 Accem personnel are deployed there, the organization was created in 1951 by the Episcopal Conference under the name of Spanish Catholic Commission for Migration. In 1991, it dropped the religious adjective and became a non-denominational civil entity. Currently, it has more than 3,800 employees, a presence in 13 autonomous communities, and over 200 social programs. In 2024, it managed ¤225.1 million in grants.
Las Raíces has been controversial since its opening. In April 2021, a confrontation between Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans left a trail of blood on the stairs leading to the infirmary and resulted in ten injured people, three of whom were hospitalized. The National Police had to enter the premises, and the altercation ended with eight residents being arrested.
The rivalry between Moroccans and Senegalese has intensified since the Africa Cup final that pitted them against each other in January. Senegal won 1-0 in extra time after several controversial refereeing decisions. Morocco appealed, and the CAF Appeals Board awarded them the title. The case is now being settled at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
"There may be coexistence conflicts like anywhere else"
Outside Las Raíces, Lamine, a Senegalese man who has been at the center for six months, warns: "After what happened in that final, it's better not to bring any Moroccans." But the Accem representative dismisses internal discomfort. "There may be coexistence conflicts as there can be in any place where adult people who have not grown up together and do not know each other live, but we have not had any serious or violent conflicts for a long time," he explains. "We had Moroccan and Senegalese people, and we showed the final. There was the same banter as if someone from Albacete and another from Murcia got together. They exchanged a couple of 'take that,' but then they went to dinner together," he recalls.
Inside Las Raíces, people are not separated by nationality but by arrival order. Outside, the more experienced ones are quickly identified by having the best phones and the best footwear. Despite the humidity and cold of the area, surrounded by eucalyptus trees, newcomers walk in flip-flops. And those who have been there a little longer add socks. Former Accem workers have reported seeing migrants "who have been a month without closed shoes."
"Normally, when a person arrives by the coast, all their clothes are destroyed, and the Red Cross gives them a clothing kit. When they arrive at our center, we have another more complete kit that includes flip-flops and regular shoes. It's a bit cultural for some guys to wear flip-flops, not because they don't have any, but because they want to, they feel more comfortable," says Atienza.
"Accem's salaries at Las Raíces are known to be the best in the sector. But social issues in Spain are messed up," explains Marta, a fictitious name for a worker with over five years of experience who prefers to remain anonymous. "Those who come for the salary stay. Those who come out of vocation, get involved, and try to contribute to the migrants' development, end up sidelined," she denounces. In her opinion, telling them that everything they do is "fine" is "washing your hands." "You don't always tell your children that everything they do is great. That's the conflict, and that's why many people end up burnt out," she states.
Marta left Las Raíces two years ago, before its renovation, when every night she saw migrants sleeping in flimsy tents experiencing the contrast between the trapped heat inside and the external humidity of Los Rodeos. "This made the roof 'cry'. Condensation drops fell all night on the people sleeping there, on the mattresses, and on their blankets." Because one thing is for sure, there are plenty of blankets in Las Raíces. A whopping 10,000.
"If they have nothing to hide, why do they always quickly close the center's doors as soon as we appear?" wonders a volunteer who regularly goes to Las Raíces to deliver clothes and food to the migrants. But the biggest complaint from the locals is outside. Everyone familiar with the area knows that just 20 meters from the center's entrance is the so-called corner of joints. Surrounded by canned food cans, cigarette packs, and beer bottles, there was a time when several young people slept there. Where there are now office chairs where they sit to spend the afternoon, there used to be mattresses. "They didn't move from there until the press came to take photos," Marta recalls.