“They have to return to their country,” “neither adults nor minors,” “they all must return.” This is how the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, spoke on Wednesday about the migrants who remain in Ceuta after the mass swim crossing on July 30 and 31. However, an urgent return like the one demanded these days by the opposition leader ended up condemning the political officials responsible for it ― the express repatriation of Moroccan minors in 2021 ― to nine years of disqualification for the then Government delegate in Ceuta, Salvadora Mateos, and the former first vice president of the Autonomous City Government Mabel Deu, for a crime of administrative misconduct.
The Provincial Court of Cádiz concluded last September on this case that “the decision to repatriate the minors (…), was not only arbitrary but manifestly unjust.” “The result was an absolute violation of the rights of the minors who were left completely unprotected,” argued the court. Prior to this ruling, the Supreme Court had already confirmed at the beginning of 2024 that those returns were illegal because they did not follow the Immigration procedure.
The Immigration Law requires that, before proceeding with a deportation, an individual administrative procedure be opened for each affected person, information about them be gathered, a hearing be held with the minor if they are mature, and the intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office be requested. None of this was respected on that occasion, so the high court ratified the illegality of the measure due to the “absolute disregard” of what is provided in the regulations by the Spanish authorities. It also considered that the rights and the physical and moral integrity of the minors returned to Morocco had been violated.
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The case dates back to May 2021, when nearly 15,000 people crossed the border of the autonomous city. It was the peak of a diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco, which was pressuring to have its plan to take sovereignty over Western Sahara supported. Among the people who entered were 1,200 migrants who claimed to be minors and 500 of them were returned hastily.
For all these reasons and because the procedure is lengthy, the central government continues with its plan to accommodate migrants through different channels ― from enabling spaces to the possible transfer to the Peninsula of about 500 girls ― and maintains that a mass deportation of children and adolescents is illegal.
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