Spain has started returning 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, the first deportation of its kind from the enclave since a mass border crossing in July.
The Interior Ministry said the group had been sent back to Morocco after it agreed to receive them. It declined to give numbers or nationalities but migrant and rights charities operating in Ceuta said 16 people from Senegal, Nigeria, Yemen, Cameroon and Bangladesh were deported.
Over 48 hours in July, some 80,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, a tiny enclave that along with Melilla represents Europe’s only land borders with Africa.
Thousands remain
While most returned within days, thousands remain and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government is under pressure from the EU and a frustrated populace to fix the Ceuta crisis before November 29 elections.
Spanish authorities are housing 8,000 migrants in reception centres and processing asylum applications lodged by the majority of people remaining in Ceuta. NGOs claim returning migrants fails to take into account the risks associated with Morocco’s treatment of migrants from other countries and fly in the face of the values espoused by Spain’s leftist government.
Virginia Alvarez, an Amnesty International researcher, said Spain’s posture was hypocritical. “Spain, despite its (progressive) speeches in Europe, is not ensuring that human rights guarantees are met for people who cross its borders in Ceuta and Melilla,” she said.
