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Police evict Medecins Sans Frontieres camp

01 August 2003

On 21 September 2003 the police raided and cleared the camp that Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) had established in El Jaral, to look after asylum applicants and undocumented migrants for whom there is no space in the Centro de Estancia Temporal de Imigrantes (CETI, Temporary Immigrant Holding Centre). With this act, Spain has become the first country to dismantle a camp run by the MSF (a doctors humanitarian organisation that won the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize). The measure was adopted by the government shortly before Gabriela Rodriguez, the United Nations rapporteur on the rights of migrants, was due to visit the camp. The 350 evicted refugees were "relocated" in the CETI in spite of the fact that it was full.

Some of those who found themselves in the tents put up by the MSF fled, fearing they would be expelled. The camp had registered up to 450 migrants and refugees. A report released by the MSF states that 95% of the people in the camp are asylum applicants and that 64% of them have health problems. Within ten days of the eviction, 150 refugees and undocumented migrants were locked out of CETI's because they were full. The MSF is looking after them. A statement by Carlos Ugarte, responsible for MSF projects said that, "what is truly worrying is that inside the CETI there are 650 migrants, around 200 more than the maximum number allowed, and they are sleeping in a library and a couple of classrooms that have been fitted out as dormitories."