130 Malians deported to Mauritania by Frontex and Spain despite their right to asylum

Audio 02:36

Around 11,000 people have arrived in the Canaries this year on makeshift boats, more than 4,000 in October alone.

Photo sent to RFI by a migrant

By: Noémie Lehouelleur

10 mins

Earlier this year, the European Border Control Agency, Frontex, and the Spanish Ministry of the Interior expelled 130 Malians detained in detention centers in the Spanish Canary archipelago to Mauritania, a country with which the Spain has since 2003 a bilateral repatriation agreement for citizens of third countries who entered its territory illegally.

Nouakchott then took them to Mali, despite the international protection they could have enjoyed.

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from our correspondent in Gran Canaria,

Mody Cissoko and Sadio Diara say they were warned at 2 a.m. on January 20, 2020 that they would be deported to Mauritania nine hours later.

They had been held for 53 days in the detention center located in the north of the island of Gran Canaria.

They were escorted in the early morning by the police to the island's airport and boarded a plane from Frontex, the European Border Control Agency.

Violation of international law

The order for their expulsion was reportedly given by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior under a bilateral agreement signed with Mauritania in 2003, an agreement which allows Madrid to return to the Islamic Republic not only Mauritanian nationals who entered illegally on Spanish territory, but also any person coming from a third country and who could have passed through Mauritania, before touching Spanish soil.

A total of 130 Malians were deported between January 20 and March 2, 2020 on board four planes chartered by Frontex.

“ 

It is forbidden to deport a person arriving from a country at war, even indirectly,

underlines the lawyer Vanessa Hernandez Delgado, who provides legal support to many migrants on the island of Tenerife.

The Spanish state is sheltering a little behind this bilateral agreement, it is cheating.

What is certain and which has been corroborated is that indirectly, there were expulsions in Mali.

This seems to me to be a circumvention of the law in force.

 "

According to the Geneva Convention and the Dublin Regulation, to which Spain is a signatory, any migrant fleeing a state at war must be informed of their rights and of the possibility of initiating an asylum seeker procedure.

Mody Cissoko and Sadio Diarra claim to have been deprived of it, despite having clearly expressed their desire to benefit from international protection.

“ 

After five days of crossing the sea in a canoe, we arrived in the Canaries and were taken to the police station and questioned,”

says Mody Cissoko.

We were detained for three days and then we went before a judge.

I said that I was Malian, that I came to be protected, because there was war in my country.

 "

His companion in misfortune, Sadio Diarra, confirms: “ 

We applied for asylum, but we were told that we could not be entitled to it.

It surprised me a lot, it shocked me.

I didn't expect a European country to deny asylum to immigrants.

 "

Two agents of the People's Defender, the body in charge of verifying respect for human rights in Spain, were on board the Frontex plane which transported Mody, Sadio and 44 other migrants to Mauritania.

Their report states that " 

several returnees declared that they had not been informed of the possibility of seeking asylum

 "

.

Although the Ombudsman's recommendation to better inform migrants was officially accepted, three more thefts took place in the following five weeks, probably under identical conditions.

To read also:

 The Canary Islands, new "prison" for migrants from Europe 

After arriving at Nouadhibou airport in Mauritania, the young men were reportedly driven by Mauritanian law enforcement to the capital, Nouakchott, and placed in cells for two days, before being transferred by car to the city. Malian border.

“ 

We have been mistreated.

We had no food and it was very difficult to have water

 "

,

explains Sadio Diarra.

Several interlocutors specializing in the care of migrants ensure that some, even from Mali, sometimes refuse to seek asylum in the country of arrival, their plan being to continue their journey elsewhere, to France or Germany by example, and to seek asylum once there.

Because once the procedure has started in the country of arrival, migrants can no longer leave its borders until they obtain their refugee status.

What few of them seem to know is that under the Dublin Regulation their asylum application can only be lodged in the country of entry to the European continent.

A distinction according to the Malian regions of origin

When questioned, the judge in charge of the Gran Canaria detention center, Arcadio Diaz Tejera, ensures that the staff of the center offer adequate information on the right of asylum to migrants detained there.

He nevertheless denounces the attitude of the Office for Asylum and Refugees under the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.

During this period, several of its employees, often police officers, reportedly questioned the migrants interned at the detention center seeking asylum.

“ 

At first, they thought that only Malians coming from the north of the country had the right to international protection, not those coming from the center or the south of the country.

But today, we must assume that those who come from Mali, especially since the coup, all come from a country at war and are entitled to international protection.

 "

The judge is campaigning today for clear information to be given to all migrants disembarking on Spanish soil from the various professionals taking care of them, from their arrival in the ports of the island, to the police stations, courts, detention centers, reception centers and hotels, where nearly 4,500 of them are currently housed in the archipelago.

Recently, more than 20 Malians detained in Gran Canaria's detention center were released to start the asylum seeker procedure.

Indeed, only migrants likely to be expelled are supposed to be detained there, but the asylum application procedure is suspensive.

Reopen the borders with Morocco and Mauritania to relaunch expulsions

Faced with the massive influx of 11,000 migrants to the archipelago this year, including more than 4,000 just in October, the President of the Government of the Canaries, Angel Victor Torres, has met on several occasions with representatives from Rabat.

The city council wants the borders to reopen, despite the health crisis due to the Covid, and that the Cherifian kingdom repatriates all its nationals who have entered Spain illegally.

In recent weeks, the Red Cross estimates that between 80 and 90% of the passengers of makeshift boats arriving in the Canaries are Moroccans.

There are also rumors about the reopening of airlines to Mauritania which would once again allow Spain to deport migrants arriving on its soil.

No official statement has confirmed these rumors.

In the meantime, whether or not they have been illegally returned to Mali, Mody and Sadio still dream of Europe and say they are ready to attempt the crossing again.

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  • Spain

  • Mali

  • Refugees

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