Abandoned at Europe’s Door

Refugee Rights News
Volume 2, Issue 4
November 2005

Every year thousands of Africans seek to enter Europe, seeking a better life. Some of these are refugees, seeking a safe haven to guard them against the persecution that they have found at home. Others flee in hopes of breaking out of desperate poverty and underdevelopment. Increasingly tight immigrations controls in Europe are pushing them to ever more desperate measures, and ever more are attempting the dangerous trek across the Sahara to try to force their way into any tiny piece of Europe they can find.

These people are often forgotten, but for a few weeks in October their plight gained international attention as an estimated two thousand migrants attempted to storm their way into the Spanish territorial cities of Ceuta and Melilla, located on the northern coast of Morocco, approximately 300 km apart. At least 11 were killed, some shot by soldiers defending the border and others crushed by the crowd.

This was not the first such occurrence. Immigrants from Africa had attempted to storm the fences of these cities four times in late August and September.

These cities have formidable security, so the risk of crossing the crossing the fences is quite high. The border of Melilla is surrounded by a 10.5 km double fence—the inner fence 3.5 meters high and the outer up to 6 meters. Both are topped with barbed wire. This security system is reinforced by fixed video camera surveillance, microphones, and infrared surveillance. Currently, there are 331 policemen and 676 Guardia Civil officers deployed in Melilla. Ceuta also has a double fence surrounding its land, 7.8 km long, equipped with a similar security system.

For those who manage to traverse the formidable border of Ceuta or Melilla, Spanish security is on the lookout to return immigrants to Morocco. Under pressure from the Spanish, Morocco tries its best to prevent any infiltration at the border and goes to great lengths to discourage further attempts of travel in Morocco.

Drawing particular criticism was the treatment of many of the immigrants after being returned to Morocco. Many report that they were mistreated or robbed en route back to their countries. Worse, Medecins Sans Frontieres reportedly found more than 500 migrants abandoned by Moroccan authorities in a desert area with no provision for access to food or water.

This fiasco has led many to reexamine the situation of refugees and asylum seekers in both Spain and Morocco. Spanish officials of Ceuta and Melilla claim that these cities are already overcrowded and cannot tolerate the influx of illegal immigrants. Melilla, itself, is faced with the issue of over-saturation. This enclave is built for 480 people, but 1500 reside within the fence. Morocco is also understandably concerned with keeping its prosperous neighbor to the north happy by keeping African immigrants from using its territory as a launching pad to enter Europe.

Human Rights Watch reports inadequate provision on the part of the Spanish government for detained immigrants who experience overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, extortion, theft, poor medical care and physical attacks in detention centers located in Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands. Spain is also seeking to reactivate a 1992 agreement with Morocco that allows Spain to deport illegal immigrants who entered Spain via Morocco, a return to Morocco.

Human rights groups have denounced these moves. In the words of Alioune Tine of RADDHO:

We are extremely troubled by these events, troubled by these unspeakable, cruel, degrading attacks on human rights, by people treated like trash, left with no water or food, dumped like garbage.

Not only do deportations in such conditions violate the rights of migrants to food and shelter, as well as due process, they also erode the rights of refugees. While most experts, including the UNHCR, agree that asylum seekers are only a minority of those seeking to enter Europe, their rights must not be trampled under foot as populations are transferred. All States must undertake to uphold the right of non-refoulement, or the right of individuals not to be deported to countries where they would face persecution or other serious harm. In order to uphold this principle, countries must screen arriving immigrants individually to assess any claims for protection that they might have and provide information about asylum procedures where necessary.

However, an increasingly complex web of bilateral return agreements and political pressures are muddying the waters in which asylum seekers, immigrants and their advocates move. In the wake of the crisis, Morocco called for a joint AfricanEuropean effort to combat illegal immigration. However, in the wake of the human rights violations exposed by this most recent crisis, there is a demonstrated need for a corresponding collaboration of European and African NGOs to monitor the human rights impacts of these efforts and to advocate for systems of managing migration which respect the rights of individuals.