Spain has returned to Morocco more than a dozen sub-Saharan African and Asian migrants who reached the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and were turned down for asylum, Reuters reported — the first deportation of its kind from the enclave since a mass border crossing in July.
Source: Reuters
Spain's Interior Ministry said the group had been sent back after Morocco agreed to receive them, and that they remained on Moroccan territory. The ministry declined to give numbers or nationalities, but migrant and rights charities working in Ceuta said 16 people from Senegal, Nigeria, Yemen, Cameroon and Bangladesh were deported, according to Reuters.
Rights groups criticise the returns
The non-governmental organisations say such returns fail to take into account the risks linked to Morocco's treatment of migrants from other countries, and fly in the face of the values espoused by Spain's leftist government. Virginia Alvarez, a researcher with Amnesty International, told Reuters Spain's posture was hypocritical, saying Spain was not ensuring human-rights guarantees for people crossing its borders in Ceuta and Melilla.
A spokesperson for Spain's Interior Ministry told Reuters that Morocco is considered by the European Union to be a safe country, and that deportations are carried out “with all the necessary safeguards”, without providing further details. Neither Morocco's Interior Ministry nor the International Organization for Migration, which cooperates with Moroccan authorities on voluntary return programmes, responded to Reuters requests for comment.
Europe's only land borders with Africa
Ceuta, together with Melilla, forms Europe's only land borders with Africa. Over 48 hours in July, some 80,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, Reuters reported, putting the enclave's reception system under intense strain and setting the stage for the asylum decisions now leading to removals.
Al Jazeera also listed the deportation among its top world stories on Tuesday, describing it as the first of its kind since the July mass crossing into the territory from Morocco.
Source: Al Jazeera
The returns test how far Spain's progressive government will go on migration enforcement at Europe's African land border — and whether people refused asylum in Ceuta can be sent to a third country, Morocco, that is not their own.