Paris, May 10 (EFE).- The Council of Europe urges Spain to review cooperation with Morocco in border control since, given the seriousness of what happened in the massive jump over the Melilla fence on June 24 and on previous occasions, suspend all common activities that lead to human rights violations.
In a report published this Wednesday on the visit he made to Spain in November, and which included a stage in Melilla in particular, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatovic, is particularly harsh in his diagnosis of the events and calls for radical changes in immigration management, especially in that autonomous city and in Ceuta.
Mijatovic openly demands that the Government instruct law enforcement to act in accordance with international human rights standards when detaining immigrants at the borders of Ceuta and Melilla, including “an explicit prohibition” and with immediate effect on expulsions.
He insists that Spain has “the absolute obligation” to guarantee that any person who has been under its jurisdiction, once they are expelled, is not mistreated, tortured or put their lives in danger.
And this even if they have tried to cross the border by jumping over the fence or violating the regular entry channels into Spanish territory.
Spain knows that Morocco mistreated immigrants
The commissioner, who repeatedly refers to the events of June 24 in which at least 23 migrants died, several hundred were injured and some are reported missing, assures that there are “consistent reports” that prove that Morocco used against them violence, that they were subjected to serious mistreatment and that “the Spanish authorities know it or should know it”.
It also alludes to the episode of the massive entry from Morocco of more than 8,000 people into Ceuta from May 17 to 19, 2021, 6,000 of whom were immediately expelled.
The person in charge of human rights of the Council of Europe shows her concern because, despite having already written to the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to ask him to review cooperation with Morocco “to prevent future tragedies”, she considers that ” No concrete steps have been taken.”
Although he says he understands that Spain frequently faces “complex situations” in managing migration given the geographical location of Ceuta and Melilla and the flows in the direction of Europe and believes that it is urgent to improve solidarity between European States, for Spain “it is imperative” that protects the rights of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers.
Hot evictions must stop
He insists that “hot expulsions have to stop” and have to be replaced by “a practice that makes border control and human rights compatible.”
Because although it is legitimate to cooperate with other countries to guarantee that control, “this has to be done fully respecting all applicable international standards on human rights.”
In addition, it underlines the importance of border control being carried out with transparency and accountability, which implies evaluating the consequences of this cooperation.
More channels for asylum seekers
Mijatovic considers that if the channels for submitting asylum applications in consulates and embassies were improved, and very particularly by facilitating access for those interested in doing so to reach the offices that Spain has at the Ceuta and Melilla border posts, this could reduce attempts to illegally cross the fence.
Among other things because, for example, in his report he records, based on the conversation he had with the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez Ruiz, most of the demands that were registered at the Beni Enzar post, in Melilla, were from people who had arrived in Spain irregularly.
In its response to the commissioner’s report, the Government of Spain makes some points, among others that hot expulsions have not been censored by the European Court of Human Rights or by the Constitutional Court when they have had to address them.
It also highlights the fact that both the Ombudsman and the Prosecutor’s Office closed the investigations they had launched into the Melilla fence jump on June 24. And above all, that the Public Ministry closed it because it concluded that there was nothing to reproach the forces of order.