At midnight on Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior expelled at least eight citizens of Sahrawi origin who had requested asylum at Barajas airport in Spain. These applicants, who had been in airport facilities for weeks after their request for international protection was denied, left Spanish territory on an Air Europa flight bound for Marrakech, Morocco. This expulsion adds to the other 16 Sahrawis who were also returned on a similar flight last Thursday. Legal defense sources for the applicants confirmed that the eight individuals returned on Sunday had all the documentation proving their Sahrawi origin, including a certificate from the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso), the census conducted by Spain in 1974, as well as favorable reports from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recommending their entry. Among those on the Sunday flight was Raschida Amaador, a 32-year-old woman, whose nephew was deported to Morocco after arriving in the Canary Islands by boat in 2019 and is currently serving a 12-year sentence in a Moroccan prison. Along with these eight Sahrawis, at least ten Moroccan citizens, whose Sahrawi origin is not confirmed, were also returned, totaling 21 people expelled on Sunday night.
With these new expulsions, there are now only four Sahrawi applicants remaining in the halls of Barajas out of a group of around thirty who had arrived since late August, as confirmed by their legal team. Three of them have their return scheduled for Thursday, October 10, while the other is awaiting a judge’s decision on their request for urgent protection measures. The Ministry of the Interior has proceeded with the expulsions despite opposition from the legal team representing the applicants, Minurso, UNHCR, and pressure from political parties such as Podemos and Sumar, who have been monitoring the situation throughout the month and demanding entry for those who have proven to be Sahrawis and persecuted in Morocco. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has stated that each case is “individually evaluated” and follows “criteria and requirements established by national and international law on protection”.
Left-wing parties have strongly criticized the actions of the Interior Minister in their press conferences on Monday. From IU, the party that leads the Ministry of Youth and Childhood, federal Organization official Eva García Sempere denounced Grande-Marlaska’s actions as “improper for a government that claims to be progressive”. She pointed out that this behavior contradicts the recent ruling of the CJEU, which suspended fishing and agriculture agreements between Morocco and the EU in favor of the Sahrawi people. Podemos co-spokesperson Pablo Fernández also criticized the lack of transparency in the deportations and accused the government of being complicit with the Moroccan dictatorship. The parties warned that the government would be responsible for any harm that may come to those deported to Morocco.
On the same night that the eight Sahrawis were expelled from Spain, three Moroccan citizens who also applied for asylum managed to escape from the airport hall where they were held after their request was denied, according to police sources. Three others attempted to escape with them but were apprehended by the police. This escape occurred through the same hole in the hall that four other Moroccan applicants had escaped from previously and still remain unlocated by authorities. A spokesperson from the National Police union Jupol criticized the lack of security and hygiene conditions in the hall of inadmissible individuals and called for increased resources and involvement from various government agencies, including the Police Directorate, the Ministry of the Interior, and Aena, which is under the Ministry of Transport.
