The ten asylum seekers at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, who claim to be persecuted Sahrawis, will be “deported,” according to Interior Minister Fernando Fernando Grande-Marlaska’s announcement yesterday, if the legal system fails to protect them and the judiciary upholds this claim.
Sahrawis are an ethnic group native to the western part of the Sahara desert, a mix of Arab and indigenous African elements. Many tribes make up the Sahrawis who largely speaker of the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic.
Grande-Marlaska in his response to the media, gave the assurance that the Ministry of the Interior would uphold “compliance with national and international law, as at all times and always supported by the judicial bodies.”
Regarding the potential for these Moroccan nationals to be removed from Spain, the Interior Minister stated: “All those who have not been deemed to be eligible for international protection according to the law will be deported.”
Morocco continues to play a key role in Spanish and European Union border management despite fears of a lack of regard for refugee right. EU has given Morocco has been given financial support and Rabat still preserves a privileged position as part of the Mobility Partnership Agreement. Since 2014 the EU sent one billion euros in support of the country’s National Strategy on Migration and Asylum.
“And always with judicial ratification in this regard,” stressed Grande-Marlaska, reiterating that compliance with the law “is the framework” in which they move in the Ministry of the Interior. Before these statements, sources from the Ministry of the Interior consulted by Europa Press confirmed that they are aware that ten citizens from Morocco have communicated in the last few hours that they have gone on a hunger strike while they are being held in the asylum room at the airport.
Rejection by Podemos
This Monday, a Podemos delegation went to the airport housing the “detained Sahrawis,” but they were not allowed to enter the asylum room.
Ione Belarra, the secretary general of this party, decried the “inhuman conditions” under which they are living and expressed her suspicion that the government is turning down requests for asylum in order to “not bother” Morocco, which it defines as a dictatorship.
Only five Moroccan nationals have refused food so far today, but ten Moroccans in the asylum room at Madrid airport have declared they will embark on a hunger strike, according to Ministry of the Interior sources. The health staff is “permanently monitoring their situation, in case specific assistance is necessary, which has not been requested up to now,” the Ministry continues.
Over the past few hours, Fatma El Galia, the strike group’s attorney, has claimed that nearly thirty Sahrawis have camped out at the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport for their first night of a hunger strike.
The attorney claimed that her clients are “persecuted Sahrawi activists,” and they “claim and prove” as such. “Some people have suffered torture while incarcerated. She denounced that some people have been held for several weeks and stated, “We are faced with proven facts to request international protection because they are in danger if they return to their country.” Due to issues with asylum seekers seeking protection during their stay in Barajas, the government had to step in months ago to keep the facilities from collapsing when citizens of other African nations, such as Mauritania, Senegal, Kenya, or Morocco, arrived. Transit visas have occasionally been implemented to guard against fraud when making stops in Madrid.
Disaster at the Shores of the Canary Islands
Rescuers were searching for at least 48 migrants from an overturned boat off the Spanish Canary islands. Despite continued efforts on Sunday, no announcement of successful rescues had been made by nightfall. Spanish authorities said the migrants came from Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.
“Unfortunately we presume the worst. The search goes on but it seems that the chances of finding someone alive are slim,” a spokeswoman for the Canary Islands government told Reuters.
The boat carrying 84 overturned on last Friday night, killing at least eight adults and one child in waters near the El Hierro island. Search teams were able to save 27 migrants. Three boats and two helicopters were deployed on Monday off El Hierro to look for the missing people, Spain’s maritime rescue service said on social network X. The incident could prove to be the deadliest from the past 30 years of migrant crossings to the Canary Islands.