The organization affirms that the Interior “did not allow” the access of the Red Cross to the area and that there were “hot expulsions” of the wounded as well.
It is perhaps the harshest report against Spain that Amnesty International (AI) has ever issued in its 61-year history. The group directly claims to have “evidence” that the governments of Madrid and Rabat committed “crimes under international law” in the tragedy of the Melilla fence on June 24 in which, according to the AI investigation, at least 37 dead (Morocco only recognizes 23) and no less than 77 missing, so the real number of fatalities could be much higher.
The accusations against the Ministry of the Interior, which for almost half a year has been denying the slightest responsibility in those events, are very serious: from having caused the tragedy with excessive use of violence by the Civil Guard to, directly, ” not allowing” medical assistance to the wounded who remained in national territory, some of whom, the organization maintains, were illegally deported among the contingent of “at least” 470 who were expelled “hot”.
AI does not mince words: “The methods used by the Moroccan and Spanish authorities at the border crossing known as ‘Barrio China’ contributed to the death of at least 37 people and injuring dozens more,” the report stated verbatim, in in line with the preliminary conclusions of the Ombudsman, who has already advanced that the use of gases by the Civil Guard could have contributed to the unleashing of deadly avalanches at the gate.
The 64-page Amnesty International report presented Tuesday is the result of the organization’s extensive investigation from June to October, which includes interviews with survivors, family members, witnesses and NGO activists, as well as analysis of satellite images, videographic material and official documentation. And the main conclusion of this document is that there was a “widespread use of illegitimate force by the Moroccan and Spanish security forces.” “Officers (from both countries) used less-lethal weapons in ways contrary to international standards governing their use, and continued to use them even after people were under police control and posed no threat to the officers themselves or to third parties” the report states.
The document, which states that some 400 people “were cornered by the Moroccan security forces” at the Chinatown crossing, insists that “the police and border guards, both from Morocco and from Spain”, used “in a repeated tear gas against people who were in a fenced off space from which they had no way to escape.”
“Cruelty”
But the most delicate part for the Ministry of the Interior is not the actions of the Civil Guard agents during the massive assault on the perimeter, but what happened afterwards. And it is that Amnesty International literally affirms that “the Spanish police did not allow the Red Cross access to the area.” Moreover, he affirms, in the Spanish part of the fence, where dozens of immigrants were bagged, “there was no public health response either (…) to assist the injured or during the attempt to cross the border and the police operation, nor after”.
According to the human rights organization, the “Spanish authorities did not help in any way the injured people who were left on the ground in Spanish territory once the police operation was over.”
Given this evidence, he directly accuses the department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, of “violating” the rights of immigrants in “multiple ways”, including “their right to prompt and adequate medical care and to be free from torture and other ill-treatment.”
“The omission of emergency aid not only manifested cruelty: it also meant a breach by Spain and Morocco of their obligation to protect the right to life,” the dossier settles.
Grande-Marlaska, in his numerous parliamentary appearances, has categorically denied the accusations that nothing was done to treat the wounded. What’s more, the Civil Guard maintains that it did not know until four hours after the avalanches of the seriousness of the events, since at the Barrio Chino crossing, where most of the deaths supposedly occurred, there was no longer any Spanish agent because they had withdrawn given the size of the jump with more than 2,000 sub-Saharans.
“Summary Expulsions”
Amnesty International goes further and affirms that, not only was no health care provided on the Spanish side of the fence, but that “Spanish security agents forced injured people to cross the border again”, according to the testimonies collected in their research.
Hot expulsions, which the Interior calls ‘rejection at the border’, deserve a particular chapter for the organization. He affirms that the Civil Guard carried out “summary expulsions” contrary to “international law”, which “protects the rights of migrants and refugees, regardless of how and why they arrive in a country.”
In essence, the investigation accuses the Ministry of the Interior of systematically violating the principle of non-refoulement, which is “a cornerstone of international human rights and refugee law and has become a rule of law customary law”, insofar as it prohibits States from transferring or returning a person to a place where they may be in real danger of suffering serious human rights violations, such as persecution or torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The impossibility of requesting asylum, the origin of 24-J
Amnesty International is clear that one of the main reasons for the tragedy of June 24 was the impossibility of requesting asylum from the Spanish authorities in Moroccan territory, as was already pointed out at the time by the Ombudsman, who revealed that the Spanish diplomatic legations in the neighboring country, in practice, they are completely closed to potential petitioners for protection.
“The Spanish authorities have frequently maintained that official channels to request asylum are a realistic option for people seeking international protection,” the report states, which immediately states that “this assertion” by the Spanish government is “unfounded.”
And this, the document explains, because “the routes to request asylum are in fact blocked at every step”, to the point that “there is no possibility worth mentioning that people from sub-Saharan Africa have access to Spanish officials to request that let them enter and request asylum at the Beni Enzar border post, the only official international border crossing to enter Melilla.
The Ombudsman already announced a few weeks ago that no sub-Saharan citizen can even reach the interior of the Beni Enzar border facilities because the Moroccan security forces prevent the passage of anyone who is not a national of the neighboring country.
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