Spanish NGO reports severe human rights violations against migrants in Morocco, Mediterranean

Spanish NGO “Caminando Fronteras” claims the total death toll from the devastating Melilla events last June is at 40, contrary to what official reports claim.

The NGO said that “these tragic events are the product of the implementation of the renewed security cooperation agreement between Spain and Morocco.”

During the first six months of this year, Caminando Fronteras reports that it has supported people in transit in countries along the EU border and documented the “repeated violence that they have suffered,” which has increased since the new cooperation agreement between Morocco and Spain was signed.

The new report highlights the “systematic rights violation legitimizing the hunt for people on the move using a warmongering discourse” through monitoring the violence and waves of repression targeting migrants throughout this time, in the following cities: Nador, Tangier, Tetouane, Agadir, Rabat, Laayoune, Dakhla, Oujda, Beni Mellal and Taza.

The report highlighted Externalization & Militarization which are formed by processes of border externalization between two countries in frames of migration control.

This notion emphasized the arbitrary detentions without administrative procedures or safeguards, systematic use of force where migrants were injured without showing signs of resistance and raid of their settlement, in which forces were accompanied by local criminal groups to steal their belongings and raze the camps down to the ground once migrants were detained.

Racial discrimination was prevalent when dealing with legal migrants even if they possess documents accrediting their residency. In recent months, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers suffered detentions due to their skin color, claimed the report.

Along with forced relocations and collective expulsion, migrants are often relocated to cities such as Beni Mellal, Taza, Agadir, Casablanca and to the Algerian border.

The report continues to highlight specific violence against women and children, saying that during raids of migrant camps; women and children were forced to expose their naked bodies to everyone present at the raid as a form of punishment.

Along with legal defenselessness of migrants and persecution of individuals defending migrant rights, in which community leaders are subjected to surveillance.

Following the report on June 24 tragic events, it highlights the coordinated violence employed that day resulting in fatalities and hundreds of injuries.

Based on witness testimony, series of different causes of death and injury were identified; Suffocation by gas, crush after falling to the ground, crush by the soldiers’ boots, beaten with traditional and electric batons, struck by bullets, refused medical care and assistance, forced displacement of wounded people and removals of wounded people from Melilla without receiving medical treatment.

The NGO states that at least 978 irregular migrants died or disappeared trying to reach Spain by sea in the first six months of 2022.

It elaborated that 800 migrants perished in Canary Islands’ waters, 101 on Algerian routes, and 35 nearby Gibraltar.

The sum of 18 boats have disappeared and 44 shipwrecks have occurred, because search and rescue measures were not deployed quickly, due to the lack of coordination between Spain and Morocco, said the Spanish NGO.

87,83% of corpses belonging to migrants disappeared to nowhere to be found, deplored the association.

“These are people who have lost their lives because of policies applied to some people on the move,” said the organization.

The macabre death toll is 118 women and 41 children. January and June are the deadliest months, namely with 306 and 290 fatalities.

Morocco’s Association of Human Rights in Nador reported only 27 fatalities as a result of force abuse imposed by the two neighboring countries’ authorities.

Head of Migration and Asylum Department in AMDH-Nador Omar Naji stated that ‘the excessive use of tear gas” from both Moroccan and Spanish officials, contributed to jostling and asphyxiation that resulted in fatalities among migrants.

UN’s Agency for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), registered the fatality or missing persons figure much lower at 312, in the first half of 2022.