An illegal immigrant’s life changed dramatically the day he saved someone else’s… He has faced prison and risked his life to survive. Mamadou Keinde lives on the edge, looking over his shoulder and dreaming of the stability and comfort that brought him to the Promised Land, a land he could never call home and from which he could be deported at any given moment.

Until the day his fortunes changed.

Now Mamadou’s dreams are within reach – yet other lives have been irretrievably shattered n the process.It was an ordinary working day for Mamadou. However, unlike the European citizens and legal residents from beyond who live in Spain, he does not spend his days in an air-conditioned office, shop or government building. Mamadou ekes out a paltry living selling fake designer sunglasses and after feeding himself, saves the shrapnel to send home to his wife and children in Senegal. Mamadou is a sharp reminder of how cushy the rest of us have it.

On Wednesday, June 6, he had set up his makeshift stall on the beach in Guardamar del Segura, little knowing that just hours later he would become a hero. Little knowing that, from that moment, a woman would pledge to fight for his right to live and work in Spain.

The holidaymakers who never returned home
Lifelong friends Bienvenido Álvarez, 66, and José Cardoso, both from Quismondo in the province of Toledo, were on holiday in Guardamar and taking a stroll along the beach. Their decision to take a dip in the inviting blue waters of the Mediterranean turned out to be José’s last. Swept away by a sudden undercurrent, the men fought to stay afloat but the angry waves took José down with them. He would never see dry land again. Bienvenido struggled valiantly against the forces of nature, seeing his hopes of survival slipping away as fast as the crashing waves were dragging him under. British expatriate Paul Brown did not hesitate. He threw himself into the water to pull Bienvenido to safety, an heroic attempt at a rescue that cost the 59-year-old his life.

Enter a 33-year-old Senegalese immigrant who was selling sunglasses on the beach, accompanied by Briton Gordon Bourne just minutes after seeing his fellow countryman’s life prematurely ended by the cruel hand of nature. Mamadou reached the flailing, drowning Bienvenido first. The Spaniard had barely been able to stay above the surface long enough to take in any air, and his semi-conscious body hovered dangerously between life and death.
Within minutes, delirious and cold, the retired Toledo holidaymaker was on the shore.
Both Mamadou and Gordon managed to make it back to the beach in time narrowly escaping the same fate as José and Paul.

“I’ll do anything in my power to help”
Bienvenido’s wife, Anunciación (Sonia), 59, is overwhelmed with gratitude and since the tragedy has been desperately trying to find her husband’s rescuer to thank him in person. Eventually she discovered his identity by reading a local newspaper. In an emotional speech to reporters, pleaded: “This man deserves everything. I beg you, don’t do him any harm and give him his papers so he can stay in Spain. “I’ll do anything that’s in my power for him to get his legal papers. I’m even prepared to get on a train to Alicante to speak with whoever I need to, to make sure it happens. And to get to know the man who saved my husband, whilst others just stood there watching.”

She stressed that neither her husband nor their much-missed friend José were acting dangerously or ignoring warning signs at the time of the incident, but were simply unlucky. Bienvenido, in fact, was unable to speak to the media after the accident, so traumatised was he by the loss of his dear friend – a loss that has meant he is now undergoing counselling.
Says Sonia: “They [the authorities] should give Mamadou whatever he needs. I’ve been going mad trying to find him, so I could give him a kiss and say thanks.”

Sonia, who travelled to Guardamar with her husband and 19 other couples as part of a pensioners’ holiday comprising seven busloads from Toledo, hopes Mamadou will be given legal residence rights on the grounds of ‘exceptional causes’.

“We want to give him a hand”
Her prayers could soon be answered, in fact. An Elche-based garden centre, Elxplant, announced this week that it is prepared to offer Mamadou a job with a contract and social security, which will mean he automatically qualifies for residency in Spain, healthcare, a state pension and an income that will allow him to not only make ends meet but maintain his family in Senegal.

Centre manager Maite Sánchez reveals that Elxplant has employed pre-residence-card non-EU immigrants in the past, so they know what procedures they need to follow to ensure they follow the law to the letter.

A written job offer and provisional contract, the business’ national identity and tax number together with a certificate evidencing the fact that the company has no debts outstanding with the social security or tax office, will need to be pulled together to allow Elxplant to take Mamadou on.

Mamadou, for his part, has had to give his personal details and a certificate showing that he has no criminal record in Senegal – if he did, he would not legally be able to take up the job, but the Senegalese government confirmed last week that his slate was clean.

Elxplant will welcome Mamadou with open arms, says Maite. “It’s not that we need staff, but we want to make this gesture for him – to that end, he is free to start with us whenever he wants,” she declares.

At the garden centre, Mamadou will find several of his fellow countrymen who are already employed there. “It’s satisfying from a humanitarian point of view to be able to give them a hand, because they work hard and they are great people. Perhaps if we’d ever had any problems we’d think twice about it, but we’ve always had wonderful experiences with employing immigrants awaiting papers – doing what nobody else seems to want to do,” Maite reveals.

For the young Senegalese, his struggle to live and provide for his family has come to an abrupt end thanks to his selfless act a few weeks ago on Guardamar beach. Mamadou’s life is just beginning. Yet neither Mamadou, nor the man he saved, will ever be able to forget that by a cruel twist of fate, the African father’s dreams have come true at a huge cost – the cost of José Cardoso’s and Paul Brown’s lives.