Amnesty International documents cases of "torture" by soldiers against immigrants in Ceuta

BarcelonaAn investigation by Amnesty International has documented "torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" of immigrants in Ceuta by members of the Spanish armed forces. The organization, which made the investigation public this Wednesday, reports beatings, harassment, theft of money and mobile phones by soldiers patrolling the city, and describes it as behavior that follows "a pattern" against the immigrants who remain on the streets of the Spanish city after the mass jump from Morocco on July 30.

Amnesty International states that it has been able to speak with more than 65 immigrants and asylum seekers, and many of the witnesses have pointed to "the violence and degrading treatment" they suffer at the hands of soldiers, including women and unaccompanied minors, "acts that, in some cases, due to their severity, may constitute torture —a crime under international law—", the organization points out. In this regard, Amnesty International states that it has collected 22 direct testimonies that attribute to the soldiers patrolling the city "beatings, harassment, humiliation and the theft of money, as well as the confiscation and breaking of migrants' mobile phones". According to its findings, some soldiers "have even acted at night and hooded against migrants, beating and punching them, or spraying their faces and bodies with an irritating spray".

The organization has documented migrants' bodies covered in bruises and with injuries that appear consistent with baton strikes. Two Moroccan boys interviewed by the organization had these injuries on their heads, and one of them stated that he had been forced to kneel before being beaten. Another Moroccan boy explained to Amnesty that "he had been unable to walk for 25 days after being pushed by a soldier from a considerable height, after a group of soldiers woke him up and harassed him, along with other people, while they were sleeping at the doors of the Sant Antoni hermitage". Another Moroccan boy and an Algerian boy reported "having been repeatedly beaten with batons and punches while they were immobilized with cable ties", the marks of which on their wrists were verified by the organization.

Amnesty International states that among the practices reported by the interviewees are insults and threats to leave Ceuta, preventing them from sleeping at night, forcing young people to shave their heads, forcing Muslims to kneel to kiss a Christian cross, beating them with batons and boots, and withholding their food if they refuse to follow an order.

The organization has written to the Spanish president and the president of Ceuta to share the findings of this investigation with them, and to request an urgent plan that provides adequate humanitarian aid and dignified reception.

"Racist harassment"

The organization also denounces "the daily harassment of a racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic nature, which seems to aim at wearing down migrant people and which also affects racialized people in Ceuta, to whom the military prevents access to the city center and to shops or supermarkets". Through a threatening presence at the access gates or in the adjacent streets, Amnesty assures, the military decides arbitrarily, based on skin color or attire —in the case of women, if they wear a veil—, whether they can pass or not, and carries out identifications.

"Thousands of people have been in Ceuta since July 30 without urgent measures having been adopted to avoid the humanitarian crisis that is being caused; thousands of people remain practically without food, without emergency resources or sanitary facilities and, in the case of women, exposed to discrimination and sexual violence. As if that were not enough, they suffer the harassment and violence of the military deployed in the area and are ignored by the authorities", underlines the international organization.

The Amnesty International report comes just a week after several videos came to light documenting beatings and vexations against migrants by the military deployed in Ceuta. Those images, published by Eldiario.es, showed several uniformed military personnel chasing, subduing and beating migrants at various points in the Spanish enclave. At that time, and in response, the Spanish government assured that it would open an internal investigation into the allegations.