Minister Mariano Rajoy Brey
Minister of the Interior
Paseo de la Castellana, 5
28046 - Madrid

Government Delegate Enrique Fernández-Miranda
Government Delegate for Foreigners and Immigration
Amador de los Ríos, 7
28010 - Madrid

Dear Minister Rajoy and Government Delegate Fernández-Miranda:

We are writing to you to request a meeting in which we can further discuss our report on the Canary Islands. During Human Rights Watch's six-week investigation in Spain last fall, we enjoyed a frank and constructive dialogue with representatives of the Spanish government, including officials from the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Labor. We appreciated their input to our investigation and incorporated reference to their perspective in our report. We look forward to an opportunity to engage in further dialogue with you on migrants' rights and the Spanish E.U. Presidency's immigration agenda.

As you may know, Human Rights Watch is a private, international human rights organization based in New York with European offices in London, Brussels, Moscow, and Tbilisi. We investigate and document human rights abuses in more than seventy countries worldwide. Human Rights Watch's report "The Other Face of the Canary Islands: Rights Violations Against Migrants and Asylum Seekers" is part of a series of reports and research Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division has undertaken on the human rights of migrants in four West European countries, including Spain. Our migrants' project will lead to the 2003 release of a report on the human rights aspects of immigration policy in the European Union, as well as shorter, country-specific publications, including further reports on Spain.

In the Canary Islands report, we addressed the following issues of concern: conditions of detention for migrants and asylum seekers on the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote; the adequacy of information, legal, interpretation, and judicial services available to arriving migrants and asylum seekers; and the ability of asylum seekers to apply for asylum from the Canary Islands. We proposed a number of recommendations that we believe should be swiftly implemented in order to bring Spain in conformity with international, regional, and domestic standards for the treatment of migrants and asylum seekers.

We understand that the Ministry of Interior is not in agreement with our findings and conclusions and has, in fact, publicly expressed on more than one occasion that the fundamental rights of migrants are not being denied in the Canary Islands. In particular, we note that in the week following the release of our report, Mr. Fernández-Miranda stated before the Congress of Deputies that in his opinion the report is unfocused and inaccurate.

We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you and others in positions of authority on immigration control in Spain regarding the concerns you have expressed, particularly in light of the recent Deputy Ombudswoman's visit to Fuerteventura and our recognition of the difficult position of the Spanish government with regard to balancing immigration control efforts and maintaining minimum standards of treatment for migrants and asylum seekers. We would also be open to visiting the Fuerteventura and Lanzarote detention facilities to assess the conditions of detention afresh, if your administration feels this would be beneficial.

Members of our research team currently plan to be in Madrid on Wednesday, March 20, 2002 and Thursday, March 21, 2002. We certainly appreciate that you have very busy schedules, but nonetheless hope that we can find a mutually convenient time for a meeting. If you have any questions concerning this request, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We will contact your office in the coming days to follow up.