The Supreme Court has confirmed that the return of almost fifty Moroccan minors from Ceuta to Morocco carried out by the Spanish authorities in August 2021 was illegal due to the “absolute non-observance” of the provisions of the Immigration Law. This law requires that, before proceeding with a return, an individual administrative procedure be opened for each affected person, information is collected about them, a hearing is held with the minor if they are mature and the intervention of the Prosecutor’s Office is requested. None of that was respected on that occasion. The court, in agreement with the public ministry, therefore considers that the rights and physical and moral integrity of the minors returned to Morocco were violated. The Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court argues that said impairment of the integrity of minors occurs when a person is placed in serious danger of suffering a physical or mental illness. And he emphasizes in his statement that it cannot be denied that something like this occurred in this case, when the Administration did not value the interest of the minors or verify their individual circumstances.
The high court thus rejects the appeals of the State Attorney’s Office and the autonomous city of Ceuta against the previous rulings of a Ceuta court and the Superior Court of Justice of Andalusia, which upheld the arguments of the complaining NGOs, including Fundación Raíces and Neighborhood Coordinator, who acted on her behalf and on behalf of eight returned Moroccan minors. All of these instances established that Spain did not follow the procedures established in the Immigration Law and Regulations in the return of minors. For the Supreme Court, beyond the seriousness of the events of May 17 and 18, 2021 in Ceuta, when some 10,000 people entered illegally across the border from Morocco, including hundreds of minors, the debate in the lawsuit focuses on whether the agreement between Spain and Morocco on cooperation for the prevention of illegal emigration of unaccompanied minors, of March 6, 2007, was sufficient on its own to support the decision to return the expelled minors. Or if, on the contrary, it was mandatory to follow the procedures established in the Immigration Law for these cases.
The Supreme Court concludes that the agreement between Spain and Morocco of 2007 does not constitute in itself a sufficient legal reason to decide the return of the minors. The requirements and procedures provided for in the Immigration Law should have been met, but this was not done, the court warns. The ruling states, “especially if it may affect the fundamental rights of people,” that “the Spanish authorities must channel their actions through the corresponding administrative procedure, as a guarantee of the legality and correctness of their decision and as a safeguard of the interests of those affected.” Furthermore, the resolution considers that non-observance of procedural steps is reinforced by the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, in whose article 4 of the Fourth Protocol dictates that “collective expulsions of foreigners are prohibited.”
In vans and by surprise
After the massive entry of people from Morocco in May 2021, the autonomous city of Ceuta found itself having to take care of around 700 minors who had also crossed the border. The care for these children and adolescents was in question from the beginning. First, they spent days housed in a sports center in undignified conditions; and later, in several centers that were improvised. Between August 13 and 15, under the leadership of the Interior, an operation was organized to carry out what Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska renamed “arranged assisted returns”, that is, the expulsion of minors. In a series of unsigned communications, both the Ministry – which had previously negotiated the returns with Morocco – and the Government Delegation in Ceuta and the city Government coordinated to carry out the operation. Surprisingly, several vans appeared at the centers to take the chosen kids to the other side of the border. The criteria to appear in an Excel document to this It was, mainly, age. The oldest were chosen, without taking into account any other circumstances. It was done without the knowledge of the Ceuta prosecutor and against the criteria of the head of the city’s Minors Area.
On those van trips, which the Interior always defended as being protected by law, at least 45 Moroccan minors were returned, about 15 a day. In the successive sentences handed down since then, the judges have requested that the teenagers who appealed their expulsion be located, but keeping track of those boys over these two and a half years has been complicated even for the NGOs that assisted them. Some, in fact, sneaked back into Spain shortly after they were sent back to their country. One of them was Abdelhakim Zerrad, who is now 19 years old. Zerrad once again risked his life to return to Spain and today works in Vigo as a kitchen assistant thanks to the Cocina Conciencia program of Fundación Raíces: “My life is better now. It is important that the judges say this because the Ceuta police left us stranded at the border and all the children were crying,” the young man said through the NGO.
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“Integrity of the minor”
After the immediate controversy that broke out as soon as the minors began to be returned, the Minister of the Interior explained: “The integrity of the minor is what determines these actions. “We are taking the appropriate steps, it is a work developed over three months.” He also assured that the children “agreed” with those returns.
“The political responsibility of Pedro Sánchez and his Minister of the Interior is undeniable,” maintains Patricia Fernández Vicens, the lawyer from Coordinadora de Barrios who has taken the case to court. “The emails came from Grande-Marlaska’s cabinet ordering the return of the minors, their permanence in office damages our rule of law. “We have been denouncing the abuse of de facto means in border procedures for years, and this ruling makes it clear that legal procedures cannot be ignored,” she adds.
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