Eduardo González
Both the PP and the leftist and nationalist groups in the Congress of Deputies, including Sumar (minority partner in Pedro Sánchez’s coalition government), have asked the Government in writing about the reasons of the Ministry of the Interior for denying the right to asylum and even announcing the possible deportation of a group of Sahrawi asylum seekers held at Madrid-Barajas airport.
On September 23, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, announced that the ten asylum seekers who were being held at the airport and who claimed to be persecuted Sahrawis would be “deported” if the law does not protect them “as creditors of international protection”, in accordance with “national and international law” and “always with judicial ratification in this regard”.
In a written question registered the following day, the Popular Parliamentary Group asks the Government if “all procedural guarantees and the examination of asylum applications” of the “ten Sahrawi asylum seekers” who were held “for several weeks” at the Madrid-Barajas airport and who “are going to be returned to Morocco” have been respected, despite having declared that they are “desperate because of the situation of repression they suffer” in their country of origin “due to political tensions over Western Sahara”.
For its part, the Sumar Group asks the Executive if “it has individually assessed each request for international protection submitted by the Sahrawis” held in Barajas, what measures the Ministry of the Interior is taking to “ensure that the human rights of Sahrawi asylum seekers are respected, especially those who allege political persecution and torture” and if “the Ministry of the Interior is aware of the risk that these applicants pose if they are returned to Morocco after claiming that they are being persecuted by the Moroccan authorities”.
Ione Belarra, from Podemos, has denounced the “double standards” of the Government “when applying the asylum law”, with express mention of the granting of asylum to the leader of the Venezuelan opposition Edmundo González and “the systematic denial of that right to Sahrawi activists and the lack of protection of their human rights against Morocco, the occupying power of 80% of the territory of Western Sahara, which systematically violates them”.
For this reason, Belarra asks “if the Government is going to stop the repatriation to Morocco of the ten Sahrawi activists announced on September 23”, what “are the reasons for the denials of the activists’ asylum applications” and if “it is going to stop the return of any of the Sahrawi activists, or their relatives, in order to properly address their applications, review the cases in depth and grant them asylum”.
In the same vein, Mikel Legarda, from the PNV, asks the Government if “it seems to it to be in accordance with the historical responsibility of the State with the Sahrawi people (…) to deny international protection to those people of Sahrawi nationality who request it in Spain”, not being able to “verify whether a person is Sahrawi when they claim to be, despite carrying a certificate from MINURSO (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) based on the Spanish census from when Western Sahara was a Spanish province”, and returning “Sahrawi people to Morocco because they are not granted international protection when they request it, without taking into account the risks they face”.
For his part, Gabriel Rufián, from ERC, asks the Government what measures it is adopting “to guarantee that the Sahrawi people detained at Barajas airport can correctly formalize their asylum applications, respecting fundamental human rights” and if “the Spanish Government is aware of the risks to life and physical integrity that these activists could face if they were deported to Morocco”. He also asks the Executive to clarify “what guarantees it offers to ensure that they will not be subjected to reprisals or inhuman treatment” and what “protocols the Ministry of the Interior has activated to ensure that the returns of these Sahrawi activists do not violate the principle of ‘non-refoulement’ established by international law and recognized by Spanish legislation”.
Likewise, Néstor Rego, from the BNG, asks the Executive “why has the Ministry of the Interior decided to reject” the requests for asylum and international protection” from these Sahrawis, “why the announcement of the deportation of ten Sahrawi people made by the Ministry on Monday, September 23” and if “it is the change in the Government’s position regarding the historical role of the Spanish State in Western Sahara, placing itself on the side of Morocco’s postulates, which now affects decision-making regarding asylum applications from Sahrawi people even though they know that they are suffering persecution and repression by the Moroccan authorities”.
