Leaving hot. Vignette of 08/10/2017 in CTXT
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has condemned the Spanish state. It is accused of illegal practices in two 'hot returns' at the Melilla border.
The court considers that on 13 August 2014, two unidentified immigrants who had jumped the Melilla fence were returned to Morocco. This is what is known as"hot refoulement" and that it "implies an expulsion of a collective nature", contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights.
The judgement, which is not final, establishes that the two plaintiffs, N.D. from Mali and N.T. from Ivory Coast. These persons shall be compensated with 5,000 euros each.
In addition, the judgment states that the applicants were expelled immediately, "without first having access to interpreters and legal assistance to inform them of the relevant provisions of the right of asylum or of the procedures against their expulsion". Thus, it is pointed out that "they were deprived of any possibility of appeal" which would have allowed them to have access to a judicial authority in order to "benefit from a careful and exhaustive control" of their claim before their deportation.
Denying the obvious
As usual, the government denies hot returns. It tries to regulate them by including them in its legislation, through the figure of refusal at the border, included in a provision of the Law on Citizen Security. This provision entailed a reform of the Law on Foreigners in 2015.
(*) This prompted Nils Muiznieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, to demand that the Spanish government halt the legalisation of these refoulements. He said there was no doubt that they were in breach of EU and UN law and could set a "tremendously negative precedent" for the whole of the EU.(*) Gabriela Sánchez in Desalambre
"It would be the beginning of the end of the EU asylum system," Muiznieks said in 2015
Related. From denial to judicial condemnation: 15 years of hot refoulements in Spain
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