Three Members of the European Parliament have accused the Spanish enclave of Ceuta of becoming a lawless zone marked by serious rights abuses after tens of thousands of migrants arrived there from Morocco at the end of July.
The Green and radical-left lawmakers visited Ceuta earlier this week to assess the humanitarian situation.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, they condemned what they described as violations of fundamental rights and called for some of those still in Ceuta to be transferred to mainland Spain.
Ceuta, a Spanish territory in North Africa, has been facing a humanitarian crisis since more than 70,000 migrants arrived from neighbouring Morocco on 30 and 31 July. Two months later, several thousand people still require support, including a large number of minors.
French Green MEP Mélissa Camara said she had witnessed an “absolutely catastrophic” situation. She said the delegation had seen children left on the streets, unaccompanied minors, pregnant women and mothers with newborn babies living in tents, and thousands of people on a beach in a vast shanty settlement with limited food rations.
Her account echoes an Amnesty International investigation published on Tuesday. The rights group said testimonies pointed to violence, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and acts that could amount to torture, allegedly committed by members of the Spanish armed forces.
According to Amnesty, between 500 and 700 children are living on the streets in Ceuta, along with hundreds of women without any protection. The organisation also warned of a rise in hate speech and xenophobia.
Estrella Galán of The Left, Jaume Asens and Mélissa Camara of the Greens/EFA criticised the European Commission for saying it expected those who entered Ceuta illegally to return to Morocco. The three MEPs instead support moving some of the people currently in Ceuta to the Spanish mainland.
They also criticised Spain’s conservative Popular Party (PP), which governs Ceuta’s autonomous city administration, accusing it of seeking to turn the migrants’ suffering into “electoral gains.”
Spain’s central government and several left-wing politicians have likewise accused some PP-led autonomous regions of opposing a mechanism to redistribute unaccompanied minors to other parts of the country.
The MEPs also accused far-right movements of dehumanising migrants by portraying them as “invaders” and fuelling hate speech.
