stories that did not make the world newswires

Real quick while I am thinking of it… here are two news stories that did not make the worlds newswires. Both have to do with immigration into Uruguay.

First one – a Romanian couple is traveling in Brazil and gets robbed of all their cash and credit cards. They wind up in Montevideo and are advised by the Romanian consul to “steal something and the locals will just deport you.” Not a good moment for Uruguayan-Romanian relations.

Second one – a boat left Nigeria recently with four stowaways on board – they thought it was bound for Europe. Poor things… it was bound for Argentina. The stowaways were detected and Argentina was notified. The Argentine authorities radioed them back and said they would not be permitted to enter the port with the stowaways – so the ship’s captain put the four Nigerians in an inflatable raft and set them adrift 100 km off of Uruguay’s Atlantic coast. They were rescued by the UY navy and brought to Punta del Este.

I don’t know how the Romanians wound up but the Nigerians are going to likely be given residency and have received job offers from ranches in the northern part of the country. I hope they know what they’re getting into. Punta del Este is Disneyland compared to the rest of this country and if that’s all they’ve seen maybe they think they’re someplace like Europe. Supposedly some of the restaurants in Punta have been sending them food to the naval base where they are being held until the immigration matters are resolved and clothing has been donated too… I wonder when they will realize that, yes, they traded up from Nigeria – but not by as much as it would appear if you’ve only seen Punta del Este.