May 25, 2021

ARGOS – International Observatory for Migration and Human Rights, expresses its great concern over the return -on May 17- in the Spanish city of Ceuta (on the North African coast) of more than 7,500 migrants -including children- instead of providing them with the reception provided in cases like these, and this despite the willingness of many Spanish regional authorities to address this emergency.

We regret that the Spanish State carries out these hot returns in clear violation of its national legislation and its international human rights commitments, established -among other instruments- in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Optional Protocol (signed and ratified by Spain).

We are also concerned that the response of the Spanish government and the rest of the governments of the member countries of the European Union is to insist on the strategies of externalization of borders, securitization and criminalization of migrants and refugees (including the criminalization of solidarity towards them).

Likewise, we express our categorical rejection of certain political actors making irresponsible calls to stop with weapons what has been described as an “invasion”, massive migrations of civilian population do not imply military aggressions under any circumstances.

In view of this situation:

• We demand the immediate cease of the returns carried out by the Spanish State, of migrants and refugees arriving at the external borders of the European Union.

• We urge the Spanish State to comply with its responsibilities in terms of human rights and international humanitarian law.

• We demand that the Spanish State sanction all actions of officials that involve practices of discrimination and xenophobia, and in particular, those that involve hot returns of foreign migrants.

• We demand that the Spanish State reject any discourse of criminalization of migration, and in particular, those that promote actions of a warlike nature against such human mobility. 

• We ask the bodies and institutions of the European Union to carry out the necessary measures to put an end to these violations, and the rejection of any policy of externalization of borders.