The UN International and Independent Mechanism for Justice and Racial Equality will issue recommendations for the governments of Spain and Morocco in order to avoid the repetition of incidents like the one in the past June 24 at the Melilla fence, where passed away at least 23 people and there were more than 300 wounded, including 200 Moroccan and Spanish agents. Although according to the figures collected by the organizations, they lost their lives at least 37 people.
“We want to give concrete recommendations to both governments to end this cycle of deadly encounters between Africans and security forces,” he stressed in a statement Justice Mokgoropresident of the mechanism.
The UN Group of Experts for Afro-descendants joined the aforementioned institution in a official note meeting in which they urged Morocco and Spain to report the investigation progress initiated around the latest tragedy at the fence. About 2,000 Migrants tried to jump the fence that separates Morocco from Spain.
The regulation regarding the use of force in the Melilla fence is governed by discrimination
The experts also asked regulatory information Spanish and Moroccan in terms of use of force in these types of cases, and stressed that “they must be guided by the principles of legality, precaution, necessity, proportionality, accountability and non-discrimination.”
Complaints for “violation of rights” on the fence
A total of 74 organizations have sent a letter to the United Nations Rapporteurships on the Human Rights of Migrants and on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions. In it, they claim responsibilities by “violations of rights on the southern border”.
“The excessive use of force by the agents of the two countries caused at least 37 deaths,” the NGOs point out.
Organizations such as the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR) or Save the Children request that the facts be “investigated and prosecuted”, as does the UN. In turn, they request a visit to the scene of the events to promote a dialogue between Spain and Morocco to adopt the necessary measures and that nothing similar happens again.
“The disproportionate response through the excessive use of force by state agents −both the Moroccan State and the Spanish State− caused the death of at least 37 people, hundreds of injuries, summary expulsions, deportations, arbitrary arrests, and agents have even entered Spanish territory Moroccan state to execute the expulsions”, they point out.
Joint claims
The NGOs assure that the events that occurred last month respond to the “externalization of borders” that puts “people’s lives” at risk. For that reason, both governments have been asked to investigate and prosecute both the cases of deprivation of life and injuries caused to migrants, such as practices extradition, deportation or forced removal of detained people.
The joint action of the governments with the EU and the African Union would prevent “these illegal deaths from being repeated”
In turn, they asked both governments to take the necessary measures hand in hand with the European Union and the African Union in order to guarantee effective “accountability, reparations for the victims, and prevent these unlawful deaths from happening again”.
On June 25, one day after the tragedy occurred, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) recalled the need “in all circumstances to give priority to security of migrants and refugees” in this type of event.
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