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Spain: Refugees in Spanish enclaves

01 May 1995

Refugees seeking asylum from Central Africa are living in appalling conditions in the two Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern coast of Morocco. In Ceuta around 250 refugees are living in a former disco without electricity and water, little food, and without "papers". The first of these refugees arrived four years ago and about three more people a week are joining the group. Nobody is taking responsibility for them and there is little chance they will be able to enter the Iberian Peninsula. The authorities in Ceuta first refused to assist the refugees and then tried, unsuccessfully, to deport them - most are political refugees. Pressure on the Spanish government delegation obliged them to undertake some minimum measures but the Ceuta town council refuses to help. It says that if they improve living conditions more refugees will come and says it is a problem for the central government in Spain. In Melilla, the second Spanish enclave, 15 refugees who went on hunger strike were finally given housing. These refugees claiming asylum had been living on the streets for nine months. Their asylum claim has been refused and they have been told they are to be deported. The delegate of the Spanish government in Melilla is known for taking a hard line: in 1992 he ordered riot police to break up a meeting of 100 Central-African people and put them into the inter-frontier zone between Melilla and Morocco where they had to live for almost two months without aid in the desert. Kontrola Kontrolpean, Donostia, Euskadi (Spain).