Spain’s Push for Repatriations

Bilateral Readmission Agreements Lack Safeguards and Transparency

The government of Spain concluded readmission agreements for unaccompanied children with both Senegal and Morocco in late 2006 and early 2007, followed by bilateral meetings with both countries.⁹ The agreement with Morocco is pending ratification at the time of writing, while the one with Senegal came into force in July 2008.

Both agreements include general references to international legal obligations and the child’s best interests, but fail to specify safeguards and guarantees to this effect before, during, and after a child’s repatriation. In both cases, a committee of government representatives is to oversee the agreements’ implementation.¹⁰

The bilateral agreement with Senegal obliges the two countries to exchange information about an unaccompanied child and to trace the child’s family within a very short timeframe: Spain agrees to inform Senegal of the presence of an unaccompanied child within 10 days; Senegal is then required to trace the child’s family and to issue documents confirming the child’s identity within 20 days. Such tight deadlines raise questions as to what extent authorities on both sides will be able to assess sufficiently the circumstances behind the child’s departure and the situation awaiting the child upon return. The deadlines also increase the risk that information will be shared with the Senegalese government before an assessment is made whether a child or his or her family are subject to persecution and have a claim for protection under the Refugee Convention. Under these circumstances, sharing such information could conceivably place the child or the child’s family at additional risk of persecution.

Spanish Funded Care Centers in Morocco May Accelerate Repatriations

The Moroccan child protection system is not ready to provide adequate care for children repatriated from Spain. Moroccan government officials repeatedly told Human Rights Watch that Morocco has no procedures or capacity to receive and care for repatriated children, including to identify unaccompanied children, trace their families, or ensure that their families are able to receive them.¹¹

As part of Spain’s efforts to return children more quickly, the Spanish government is financing the construction of residential centers for unaccompanied children in Morocco.¹² The construction of two residential centers and several flats was financed by the autonomous communities of Madrid and Catalonia with the contribution of three million Euros from the European Commission.¹³ Additional facilities for repatriated children are reportedly planned by the Andalusia autonomous community.¹⁴

Some centers, including two centers financed by the European Commission, were initially designed to receive repatriated children, whereas services in other centers reportedly are available for Moroccan children who are at risk of migrating to Spain.¹⁵ European Commission representatives recently stated that the objective of the centers in Taghramt and near Ben Gurir has changed and that these centers would rather be used to “prevent” children’s migration by providing services to those who intend to migrate to Spain.¹⁶ Despite these assurances, representatives from the Entraide Nationale, Morocco’s implementing agency, told Human Rights Watch that they cannot rule out centers might receive repatriated children.¹⁷

Valid concerns remain that centers will be used to speed up children’s removal from Spain to a country without a functioning child protection system to receive them.¹⁸ Although it is permissible under international standards to return a child to the country of origin if advance arrangements of care and custodial responsibilities are made,¹⁹ it is questionable, generally, to what extent the return of children to such centers will serve their best interests. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has clearly stated that “non-rights-based arguments such as those relating to general migration control, cannot override best interests considerations.”²⁰ Furthermore, if services in these centers are only accessible for repatriated children, such programs possibly create incentives to migrate for children who otherwise don’t have access to such services.

⁹ For more information on Spain’s readmission agreement with Morocco, see Letter from Human Rights Watch to Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, January 9, 2007, http://hrw.org/pub/2006/SpainMorocco010907.pdf; Letter from Human Rights Watch to Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, April 2, 2007, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/04/02/spain15628.htm. The implementation of these agreements was discussed during the July 9, 2007 high-level meeting between Spain and Morocco in Toledo, and the February 2008 meeting with a Senegalese government delegation in Madrid. See “Spain gives incentives for a ‘resolute action’ by Morrocan consulates with repatriation files of unaccompanied children” (“España incentivara la ‘acción resolutiva’ de consulados marroquíes con expedientes de menores extranjeros no acompañados”), Europa Press, July 9, 2007, www.europapress.es/noticiasocial.aspx?cod=20070709172722&ch=313 (accessed September 24, 2008); “Spain and Senegal intensify cooperation in the return of unaccompanied children to their familiies” (“España y Senegal intensifican la colaboración en el retorno de menores no acompañados con sus familias”), Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (Ministerio de Trabajo y de Asuntos Sociales), February 12, 2008, www.tt.mtin.es/periodico/inmigracion/200802/INM20080212.htm (accessed September 24, 2008).

¹⁰ Human Rights Watch urged Spain to include independent organizations and the UNHCR as members of the monitoring committee and to make the agreements’ implementation transparent. See Letter from Human Rights Watch to Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, January 9, 2007, http://hrw.org/pub/2006/SpainMorocco010907.pdf, and letter from Human Rights Watch to Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, April 2, 2007, http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/04/02/spain15628.htm. The Spanish government, however, told us that committee members will only consist of government representatives. Letter by María Consuelo Rumí Ibáñnez, state secretary for immigration and emigration, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, to Human Rights Watch, May 7, 2007. The letter is on file with Human Rights Watch.

¹¹ Human Rights Watch interviews with Noufissa Azelali, director of the Ministry of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity’s National Institute of Social Action, Tangier, May 5, 2008; Abdeljalil Cherkaoui, executive director for social action, Entraide Nationale, Rabat, May 8, 2008; Dr. Abellah Taleb, regional coordinator of the Entraide Nationale in Tangier-Tetuan, Tangier, May 6, 2008; and Abdelatif Berdai, chief of cabinet, Andane Jazouli, advisor to the minister, and Leila Frohj, director of children’s division, Ministry of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity, Rabat, May 9, 2008.

Less is known about the capacity of the Senegalese child protection system to care for unaccompanied children and Spain has not repatriated children to Senegal so far.

¹² The reception facilities are: Assadaqa, in Tangier, with beds for 40 children; in Nador, with beds for 40 children; in Beni Mellal, with beds for 40 children; Taghramt, in Fahs Aujer, with beds for 40 children; in Ben Gurir, near Marrakesh with beds for 40 children; in Tangier, two apartments with total capacity for 10 children. Human Rights Watch interviews with Abdeljalil Cherkaoui and Raja Nazih, Entraide Nationale, May 8, 2008; with Vicente Sellés Zaragozí, Mercedes Cornejo Bareas, and Isabel Fajardo Lopez, Agencia Española de Cooperación internacional, May 8, 2008; and with Laura Lungarotti, IOM, May 9, 2008.

¹³ Reception facilities that received funding from the European Commission are Taghramt center, the center near Ben Gurir, and the two apartments in Tangier (see footnote above).

¹⁴ EFE, “Andalusia promotes in Morocco a reception project for minors” (“Andalucía promueve en Marruecos un proyecto de acogida de menores”), Sur, August 3, 2008, www.diariosur.es/prensa/20080803/andalucia/andalucia-promueve-marruecos-proyecto-20080803.html (accessed September 24, 2008).

¹⁵ The International Organization for Migration (IOM) representative stated that the centers in Nador and Beni Mellal are designed to receive street children, not for children repatriated from Spain. Human Rights Watch interview with Laura Lungarotti, IOM, May 9, 2008.

¹⁶ Human Rights Watch interview with Lidia Rodríguez-Martinez and Miguel Forcat Luque, EuropAid Cooperation Office, Brussels, April 4, 2008.

¹⁷ Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. Abdellah Taleb, regional coordinator for Entraide Nationale, Region Tanger Tetouan, and Zeinab Ouljahon, director, Assadaqa Center, Tanger, May 6, 2008. Such decisions, the officials said, were in the hands of the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs.

¹⁸ See for example Peio M. Aierbe, “Protecting foreign minors or getting rid of them?” SOS Arrazakeria/SOS Racismo, September 6, 2007, www.statewatch.org/news/2007/sep/08minors-reception-centre.htm (accessed September 22, 2008).

¹⁹ “In the absence of the availability of care provided by parents or members of the extended family, return to the country of origin should, in principles, not take place without advance secure and concrete arrangements of care and custodial responsibilities upon return to the country of origin,” Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside their Country of Origin,” General Comment No. 6, CRC/GC/2005/6 (2005), para. 85.

²⁰ Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. 6, para. 86.

October 2008

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