Survivors of a deadly altercation between migrants in the small Spanish enclave of Ceuta a decade ago have filed a complaint with the United Nations accusing Spain of torture, human rights groups announced Wednesday.
On February 6, 2014, at least 15 migrants from neighboring Morocco drowned while trying to reach Talajal Beach, south of Ceuta.
Survivors said police from Spain’s Civil Guard fired rubber bullets at the migrants, puncturing the buoy they were clinging to.
After a Spanish court shelved an investigation into the case, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) filed a complaint on behalf of one of the survivors with the United Nations Committee against Torture.
The unaccompanied minor from Cameroon, who was just 15 years old when he tried to enter Ceuta in 2014, was arrested by the Guardia as he struggled to grasp the border of the sea wall between Morocco and the Spanish enclave. He said he was beaten and tear gassed by civilian officials.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
He was then arrested and deported to Morocco, where he now lives in Germany, where the ECCHR is based.
“The United Nations must insist that Spain reopen its investigation into the Talajal case and end impunity,” said Carsten Gericke, a lawyer with a Berlin-based human rights group.
Spanish authorities only acknowledged firing rubber bullets into the air as a warning.
Advertisement – SCROLL TO CONTINUE
Sixteen private security guards were charged in the case, but Spain’s Supreme Court shelved the case in 2022, citing lack of evidence, after several lower courts opened and closed the case.
“There is still no truth, there is no justice, families have not been compensated, and there is no guarantee that it will not happen again,” said Elena Muñoz of the Spanish Refugee Assistance Commission, a non-governmental organization also known in Spanish. Abbreviation: CEAR.
Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish enclaves on Morocco’s northern coast, are the European Union’s only land borders on the African continent and are often targeted by migrants hoping to reach mainland Europe.
tpe/ds/giv