Volunteers help migrants reverse water trauma in Spain's Canaries

By Borja Suarez

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Spain (Reuters) - Smiling broadly, perhaps to hide their nervousness, dozens of young African migrants wearing swimming goggles took their first strokes and exhaled into knee-deep water on a Tenerife beach, led by Spanish volunteer instructors.

Many are suffering from water trauma after a perilous crossing to the Canary Islands from countries such as Senegal or Mauritania crammed into precarious boats. Some barely survived and others lost family members or friends to the ocean.

"There are people who come with a terrible fear that you see when they get into the water holding your hand as if clinging to life," said Jorge Balcazar, coordinator of Project Agua at the rescue charity Proemaid, saying some people had spent up to 15 days at sea.

The number of migrants arriving irregularly by sea to the archipelago soared by 160% between January and July 15 from a year ago to almost 20,000 people, representing the bulk of such arrivals by sea to Spain, according to Spain's interior ministry.

Migration rights group Walking Borders said a report last report that nearly 5,000 migrants, an unprecedented number, have died at sea in the same period on that route.

"I wouldn’t do it again. It's very difficult, very, very dangerous. It's a risk we took, because we didn’t have a choice. It’s tough in Mali," said Mamadou M Bathily, a 24-year-old trained IT specialist, who came to Tenerife a week ago via Senegal along with 215 others.

The volunteers work with groups of 35-40 people and hope to train as many as 450 during the summer, said Francisco Navarro, of another non-profit, ACCEM.

Proemaid's Balcazar said the volunteers were working with both non-swimmers and people with some water experience to "remove or reverse that trauma".

"The truth is that in a few sessions you see changes and their gratitude, which gives us a huge boost of energy."

(Writing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Sharon Singleton)