MADRID, October 28 (Aalimi Nation) – Spain has sent back to Morocco more than a dozen migrants who reached its North African enclave of Ceuta and were refused asylum, in the first deportation of its kind since a mass border crossing in July. The Ceuta deportations have drawn criticism from a leading human rights organisation.
Spain's Interior Ministry said the group was returned after Morocco agreed to receive them and that they are now on Moroccan territory. It declined to give the number of people involved or their nationalities.
Migrant and rights charities working in Ceuta put the figure at 16. They said the group included people from Senegal, Nigeria, Yemen, Cameroon and Bangladesh.
Responding to the criticism, the ministry said the European Union regards Morocco as a safe country and that deportations are carried out "with all the necessary safeguards". It did not elaborate on what those safeguards are.
Amnesty International said the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was putting the migrants' human rights at risk. Virginia Alvarez, a researcher at the organisation, said Spain "is not ensuring that human rights guarantees are met for people who cross its borders" into Ceuta and Melilla. She added: "Morocco does not respect many human rights."
Charities argue that the returns overlook the risks faced in Morocco by migrants from other countries. Morocco's Interior Ministry and the International Organization for Migration did not respond to requests for comment.
About 80,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta over 48 hours in July, a movement that overwhelmed the small enclave.
Most of those who entered went back within days, but thousands stayed. Spanish authorities are housing about 8,000 migrants in reception centres and processing asylum applications lodged by most of those who remain. Ceuta and Melilla are Europe's only land borders with Africa.
Several non-governmental organisations, Amnesty International among them, have separately complained to Spain's ombudsman about the more than 13,000 people the government says have returned voluntarily to Morocco since mid-August. The groups say some of those people were in fact pushed to leave, including people who are not Moroccan nationals. No response from the ombudsman has been reported.
The deportations come as the government faces pressure from the European Union and from a frustrated public to resolve the Ceuta crisis before snap elections on November 29.
The Interior Ministry did not say whether more deportations are planned.
Rights groups are expected to keep pressing Madrid and the ombudsman over the treatment of migrants in the enclave, while the government has to balance those concerns against its commitment to process asylum claims quickly and return those who are rejected. The handling of Ceuta is likely to remain a major issue in the campaign leading to the November 29 vote.
