Spain returns 16 migrants to Morocco
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on TimesLIVE
Spain has returned 16 migrants who arrived in the Ceuta enclave and were refused asylum to Morocco, according to organisations there. The procedure, accepted by Moroccan authorities, is the first such deportation since the mass border crossing in July, TimesLIVE reports.
Spain has returned 16 migrants from Senegal, Nigeria, Yemen, Cameroon and Bangladesh to Morocco after their asylum applications in Ceuta were rejected, according to rights and migrant support organisations operating in the enclave. Spain's Interior Ministry said Morocco had agreed to receive them and that they were still on its territory.
These are the first returns of this kind since the mass crossing of migrants into Ceuta in July. A Spanish ministry spokesperson told Reuters that the European Union considers Morocco a safe country and that deportations are carried out with the necessary safeguards. Amnesty International disputes this assessment: its researcher Virginia Alvarez believes Spain does not guarantee the human rights of people arriving in Ceuta and Melilla, and that Morocco respects few of them.
In July, around 80,000 people crossed the border between Morocco and Ceuta within 48 hours. The Spanish government says more than 13,000 people have since returned to Morocco; 8,000 migrants are being housed in reception centres in Ceuta and the majority of those remaining there have applied for asylum.
The returns come as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government is under pressure to resolve the crisis in Ceuta before the 29 November elections. Several NGOs have referred the returns to Morocco to Spain's ombudsman. On 25 October, Spanish intelligence accused Morocco of being passive in controlling the border of Ceuta.
