Spain deports asylum seekers

MADRID:

Spain has returned to Morocco more than a dozen sub-Saharan African and Asian migrants who reached the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and were turned down for asylum, the first deportation of its kind from the enclave since a mass border crossing in July.

The Interior Ministry said the group had been sent back to Morocco after it agreed to receive them and they remained on Moroccan territory at present. It declined to give numbers or nationalities but migrant and rights charities operating in Ceuta said 16 people from Senegal, Nigeria, Yemen, Cameroon and Bangladesh were deported.

The NGOs claim such returns fail to take into account the risks associated with Morocco's treatment of migrants from other countries and fly in the face of the values espoused by Spain's leftist government.

Virginia Alvarez, an Amnesty International researcher, said Spain's posture was hypocritical.

"Spain, despite its (progressive) speeches in Europe, is not ensuring that human rights guarantees are met for people who cross its borders in Ceuta and Melilla," she said. "Morocco does not respect many human rights."

Morocco's Interior Ministry did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.