Youssef El Mahmoudi, the young Sahrawi who had been held for two weeks at Bilbao airport awaiting deportation to Morocco, was released early this Saturday by order of the judge and left the airport facilities. The director of Migration and Asylum of the Basque Government, Xabier Legarreta, has specified that El Mahmoudi has been released by order of the duty court of Bilbao. The National Court denied him on Thursday the precautionary measure requested to avoid deportation. The young man was to be returned to Morocco this Sunday, after the pilot of the flight he boarded on Friday bound for Tangier refused to take off. And the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego, asked the Ministry of the Interior to provisionally authorize his entry into Spain “for humanitarian reasons.”
El Mahmoudi was due to leave on Friday on an Air Arabia flight at three in the afternoon but the pilot considered that it was “not safe” with the young man on board and refused to take him to Morocco, where he was to be transferred after his asylum request was denied and after two weeks at Loiu airport (Bizkaia). After the failed attempt, the Sahrawi activist remained detained in the National Police facilities at the airport and was scheduled to fly this Sunday at 5.40 pm.
Legarreta confirmed his release on social media and added that “a right is not something that someone gives you,” but rather “it is something that no one can take away from you.” The director of Migration and Asylum of the Basque Government includes a quote from Nelson Mandela in which he points out that “depriving people of their human rights is putting their own humanity into question.”
This release came after Minister Sira Rego asked the Ministry of the Interior on Friday to provisionally authorise the entry of the Sahrawi activist into Spain “for humanitarian reasons”, since, she pointed out, returning him to Morocco “would put him in grave danger”.
Youssef El Mahmoudi is a young activist who has been persecuted for his commitment to defending Western Sahara.
Returning him to Morocco would put him in grave danger.
We have proposed provisional authorization to enter Spain for humanitarian reasons. https://t.co/N1QQJk5349 pic.twitter.com/HHsADkEIHh
— Sira Rego 🔻 (@sirarego) July 5, 2024
The young man began a hunger strike on Wednesday to denounce the risk of being expelled, and was taken to hospital on Thursday night for a check-up to determine his health. After the medical tests, he was discharged and returned to the airport, where he remained until early Saturday morning.
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