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SPAIN-MOROCCO: Presentation of the new Migreurop report: Ceuta and Melilla, open-air migrant sorting centres at the gates of Africa

01 August 2016

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On 25 July 2016, Migreurop published a joint report resulting from cooperation and missions conducted in 2015 in northern Morocco in the proximity of Nador and in the Spanish north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The missions were carried out by GADEM, La Cimade, Migreurop, and Migreurop Spain. These fact-finding missions included visits to detention centres and border fences in Ceuta and Melilla, as well as interviews with institutional actors, activists, members of associations and migrants themselves.

An overview produced by the organisations outlines the main issues covered in the report, including:

1) cooperation between the Moroccan and Spanish authorities;
2) the legalisation of “hot returns”, or how Spain tries to legitimate collective expulsions;
3) asylum offices at the Ceuta and Melilla borders, or the selection of candidates for migration to Europe; and
4) the creation of legal limbo and impunity as key elements of migration management at the EU’s southern border, focusing on detention centres, unregulated transfers to the Spanish mainland and the seemingly untouchable nature of the Guardia Civil ("it seems that the Spanish justice system, backed up by the government, protects the Guardia Civil despite their numerous violations of national and international legislation and their predominant role in the attacks upon the physical and moral integrity of the candidates for immigration to Europe").

Documents

  • Report overview: Ceuta y Melilla, centros de selección de personas migrantes a cielo abierto a las puertas de África? (pdf)
  • The report: Spanish: Ceuta y Melilla, centros de selección a cielo abierto a las puertas de África? (pdf) and French: Ceuta et Melilla : centres de tri à ciel ouvert aux portes de l’Afrique? (pdf)

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