Migrants Situation in Spanish Territories
Statement
about the Constitutional Court’s recent press release on Summary Pushbacks to Morocco
The media is stating that the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) endorses summary pushbacks, when the truth is that TC actually rejects them.
See detailed article on Digital Religion: TC has disallowed summary pushbacks
CVX-E has joined the list of the signatory organizations, represented by which Marga Martínez Escamilla (Professor of Criminal Law at UCM) and Patricia Fernández Vicens (“Coordinadora de Barrios”) acts as spokepersons.
The signatory organizations highlight that the Constitutional Court has disallowed the way in which summary returns have been practiced so repeatedly by different governments, including the current one, through the borders of Ceuta and Melilla.
Once the press notice No. 107/2020 regarding the resolution of the appeal of unconstitutionality brought against certain provisions of Organic Law 4/2015 (on the protection of citizen security -LOPSC) has been released, and pending on the full content of the decision, it is clear that the Court makes constitutionality of the special border rejection regime on Ceuta and Melilla conditional to the enforcement of these rejections taking place (i) “with the guarantees that the international rules, agreements and treaties ratified by Spain confer to foreign persons” and that (ii)”in any case,, security forces must pay particular attention to vulnerable cases”.
To the extent that none of these conditions are respected in the way in which these returns are currently carried out – by directly handing over to the Moroccan authorities the persons intercepted on the borders of Ceuta and Melilla, without any procedure that allows the identification of vulnerable categories or the individualization of cases and therefore depriving them the rights granted by regional and international human rights laws.
WE REQUIRE the Spanish Government to paralyze the practice of these returns, while regulation is established as quickly as possible to ensure a procedure in accordance with the requirements of the TC sentence.”