Zaid Ayat Malik : A refugee who arrived in spain secretly and whose ability to run gave him citizenship

Zaid Ayat Malik's family is a nomadic family living in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco

By midnight on December 31, 2006, most people in Spain were preparing for the New Year.

But Zaid Ayat Malik spent the night dodging the police.

He and his cousins ​​had just arrived in Spain from Morocco, hiding in a truck loaded with boats for a five-hour journey.

He had managed to stay in hiding until now, but after stepping on European soil for the first time, it seemed that his luck was over.

Zaid was a tough runner from his childhood in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.

So that night in December 2006, that ability became the difference between being caught and escaping.

This later opened many doors for them and saved them from being evicted from the country they now consider their home.



Zaid's family is a nomadic Berber shepherd family living in a village 350 km from the Moroccan capital, Rabat.

They live in a large cloth tent and move away every few weeks in search of fodder for their goats.

He was born in 1984 in one such tent. He was the youngest of six siblings and only one of them went to school. But when he turned 18, he had to earn money for his family.

He began working on construction sites off the Atlantic coast of Morocco, where he earned about 500 euros (30 430) a month.

Then in 2006 he decided to move to Europe.

About 40,000 illegal immigrants were caught trying to enter Spain that year.

Zaid, his brother Saeed and his cousin Muhammad, were all economic migrants who were among the large numbers.

Saeed and Mohammad also worked in the construction sector, but spent most of their time overseeing the port of Tangier. They did this to find the best way to get to Europe by boarding a boat bound for Spain.

Then, on New Year's Eve, Muhammad persuaded Zaid to meet him at the entrance of the port.

Nothing was planned, but when a taxi pulled up in front of a truck, Muhammad suddenly disappeared.

Moments later, Zaid heard them driving under the truck: 'Run, here's the place. If we don't get out now, we will never be able to cross.

Zaid ran away. Holding the cables under the truck, they entered the harbor and from there reached the barge.

They knew what they were risking. Saeed had been captured in an earlier attempt and had been severely beaten before being released.

Arriving at the barge, Zaid and Muhammad began searching for a cloth-covered truck to hide. For five hours, without food or water, they hid in a small wooden plank.

When the boat reached Spain and the truck landed on Spanish soil, police stopped it somewhere.

The luggage was searched. When the torches began to fall directly on their secret place, their hearts began to beat faster.

But no one noticed them. They did it.



The truck then stopped for two hours. Eventually, Zaid and Muhammad dared to get out of the stolen truck. They saw Malaga's board and started walking along a highway.

After walking about 10 km, they took refuge under an underpass. In the cold and darkness, they hugged each other and tried to sleep for a while. Early in the morning, they started walking again.

A car approaching in front of them slowed down and signaled with lights.

Zaid thought the car driver might be helping him. He went to the car and found out that he was a police officer.

Terrified, they rushed to the other side of the highway. His cousin Muhammad was caught trying to get out of the bushes.

Zaid hid. Sitting still under a tree, he saw that the police had put his cousin in the car and were now coming towards him.

Zaid ran away again.

They jumped over the fence between the two lenses of the road and started running and just kept running.

Muhammad and the policemen kept laughing. It seemed to them that even trying was futile. But they managed to escape.

Now he was all alone and could not call for help.

They did not know a word of Spanish. But luckily he met three people through whom he reached the shore.

At first, as he was approaching a service station, someone called him in Arabic. She was a Moroccan woman who ran a service station with her Spanish husband. They provided Zaid with food and water.

Shortly afterwards, a Moroccan car stopped. They took him to their home in the nearby town of Estipona, gave him a bath, gave him some clothes, and invited him to stay with his family in another coastal town, Almeria.

Then a few days later, as he was talking to his home from a telephone booth, he heard a familiar accent from another phone booth.

This was the tone of a man from a neighboring village who was working in a field where additional staff was needed.

Zaid said goodbye to his hosts, thanked them for their hospitality and left.

His new life was waiting for him.



Zaid Ayat Malik on a visit to his hometown

For about three years, Zaid lived in a farmhouse near the fields on the outskirts of Almeria.

This wage was very hard. They picked tomatoes and watermelons and cared for the fields for many hours a day in the scorching heat of coastal Spain. Many times they wonder if all this is of any use or not.

Zaid says: 'Many times when I was in trouble, I thought of packing up and going home. But once I crossed the border, going back was not an option.

"People spend a lot of money or try for years to cross the border. I was successful for the first time and the opportunities were starting to come. I had to take advantage of them.

In 2010, he and a friend got a job picking olives in the town of Baina in Cordoba Province. There, for the first time, they felt like Spain.

He enrolled in a Spanish language course, started playing football with the locals, and started running through which he met members of the local athletics club Media Ligua Beina.

"From the moment I met him, Zaid seemed to be a calm and thoughtful man who valued every opportunity," said Hesos Morales, the club's president.

"He ran very fast and he was very tough," he says.

Zaid moved into an apartment with his friends, but when they left after the olive season was over, Zaid decided to stay.

Initially, they lived in a makeshift shelter provided by the Bina branch of the Red Cross, but then members of MediaLigua helped them get an apartment and put furniture in it.

They also provided Zaid with equipment to participate in local races, paid registration fees and travel expenses.

"The club helped him with everything he needed to make it clear that he was part of the Media Ligua family," says Morales.

Zaid started winning prize money in local road races and would also earn some money by picking olives.

Media Ligua then helped him obtain a local council athlete scholarship and then a residence permit in 2012.

He then teamed up with Carlos Shamoro to train local children. Carlos advised them to take part in a mountain race.

"It refreshed my childhood memories that the mountains were my world," he says.

Zaid was naturally skilled in this work. Carlos soon thought of another race for his new friend.

In 2018, Anna Comet also wrote a book on the story of Zaid Ayat Malik

Surrounded by mountains, the small town of Zigama has become famous since its first annual race in 2002.

In terms of its distance, it is a marathon race that reaches an altitude of 2736 meters.

It has become a divinity among trail runners. Thousands of people come to watch the competition on this route and build a human corridor. It seems to be a mountain stage of the Tour de France.

There are also a lot of people who want to take part in this race.

In 2020, 12,563 people applied, but only 500 people are allowed, of which 225 are elected by ballot, 125 are elected on the basis of success in the previous race, and 150 are moderators. Is added at will.

Shamuro wanted Zaid to run in the 2013 race, but when 3207 people applied, he felt he needed help.

He called Noria Bergada, whom he knew through a student exchange program.

During her visit to Baina, she met Zaid, and her running in the mountains reminded her of her son, Killian Hornet, who had won the Zigama race several times.

Hornett told the race director that it would be "good" to have Zaid in the race.

She agreed.

Zaid was now on a big and international stage. No one knew him on the opening line, but when he suddenly reached the front of the race, he caught people's attention.

Halfway through, they were just 90 seconds away from the front-facing Hornet.

Zaid finished fourth in just four hours. It was a performance that changed his life.

He was recruited by a professional trail running team and competed all over Europe. He also won the Sky Runner World Series.

Then in 2013 and 2014, he became the first person to cross the finish line at the Spanish Mountain Racing Championships, but both times the runner-up was declared the national champion because Zaid was not a Spanish citizen.

In 2018, this issue began to rise again.

Zaid Ayat Malik will now represent Spain at the World Trail Running Championships in November 2021

Under the terms of his residence permit, Zaid had to pick olives 180 days a year so that his permit could be renewed.

Because he had a positive personality, he thought it was a good training for toughness for an athlete. He felt that this would help him to 'get out of trouble.'

But their race schedule and short olive-growing season meant they could not meet that number of days in 2018, so they would be illegal in Spain when their permits expired. And the country they had considered their home for 12 years would be evicted.

Zaid made many friends through trail running. He was chosen by a professional team not only because of his ability but also because of his personality.

Zaid, who always smiled and sometimes wore Afro-style hair, soon became very popular and was recognized by athletes and fans.

Now they all started a social media campaign with a simple message: #ZaidSeQueda meaning Zaid will stay here.

The campaign received national media coverage and was supported by his old friend Hornet.

When Zaid took part in the 109-kilometer race in Catalonia a week before his permit expired in September, spectators were there for the banner "Zaid will stay here".

And even when he crossed the finish line at number two, people kept chanting the same slogan.

The deadline passed, but a month later they received the news.

The Ministry of Justice granted him Spanish citizenship through a letter of naturalization, which is only done in exceptional circumstances.

The press release said that Zaid Ayat Malik has "completely blended" with Spain and that the decision was made because of his "outstanding performance in sports which gave us serious hope of success in athletics". Is.'

His cousin Muhammad also now lives in Spain. Police sent him back to Morocco, from where he failed to re-enter Spain.

But then he got a residency in Catalonia.

Zaid says: 'I was afraid of being evicted. Until then, my life was not easy, but my senses were saying that nothing bad would happen.

"My environment encouraged me to look and believe and to be assured that the Spanish government would not leave me alone."

And that's what happened. I was very happy I am the luckiest person in the world because Spain has given me so much love and acceptance. I don't know how to thank you for your support.



Zaid does not remember the day he was born in the tent in 1984. Berber people do not celebrate birthdays. His date of birth was written in the school admission register as January 1, 1984, but he knows that this day was actually September.

So now he is 37 years old but still the top athlete in the Sky Runner World Series. Last Sunday, he won the 31km race in Xianori and says the race was "the key to my dreams."

By the way, they will not take part in the next race of this series, the 40 km long Snowden Sky Race which is being held in Wales on Sunday, but now they have enough freedom for more adventures.

In April, for example, he won the 250 km Volcano Ultramarathon in Costa Rica.

And they are still a valuable team member and bring joy wherever they go. After finally getting a chance to represent Spain, he finished fourth at the Sky Running World Championships in July, which led his team to the event.

He finished second in Spain's National Trail Running Championships, qualifying for this year's World Championships in Thailand.

And the man who hid in Spain under a truck will proudly represent Spain in November 15 years later.