GADEM continues its monitoring of migrant rights violations

Rabat

October 9, 2018

In the framework of its #CoûtsEtBlessures alert campaign, launched on September 21st, GADEM will publish this Thursday, October 11th a follow-up note of the situation of migrant people arrested in northern Morocco, particularly in Tangier. This note deals this time with the arrests and expulsion measures implemented by the Moroccan authorities, outside of any legal framework.

Today, the GADEM is able to affirm on the basis of testimonies that violence and Violations of the rights of black people who are not Moroccan nationals [1] have been pursued on an unprecedented scale since 2005. The note that we publish on Thursday, October 11th, describes the extremely worrying situation of people who have been held in police stations in Tangier for more than a month.

We denounce:

• restricted access to food (bread, water and milk only) and toilets,
• lack of beds (only mattresses on the floor without cover)
• daily violence
• many injured and seriously patients without any assistance, etc.

According to the testimonies collected by GADEM, to date, at least 89 people of different nationalities (including 6 minors) were returned to their countries of origin, after being detained in Tangier.

Our previous report “Costs and Injuries – Report on Law Enforcement Operations in Northern Morocco between July and September 2018 – Evidence and Analysis”, GADEM documented the repeated violations during forced displacement of non-Moroccan black people [1] to cities in the South.

GADEM reaffirms the obvious link between repressive policies at the national level and cooperation between Morocco, the European Union and its member states on migration issues.

We call on other civil society organizations, the media and citizens to mobilize strongly and join GADEM to ask the authorities (Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Justice, Presidency of the Public Ministry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, National Council for Human Rights, Delegate Ministry in charge of Moroccans residing abroad and Migration Affairs, National Security, Auxiliary Forces) to use their influence to:

• End unlawful detentions of persons arrested under Law No. 02-03
• Investigate allegations of cruel, inhumane treatment and degrading victims of black people who are not Moroccan nationals
• suspend collective expulsions from any legal framework, facilitated by r chancelleries;
• Guarantee their rights to legal treatment, individualized, respectful, in accordance with the international commitments of Morocco;
• Observe the guarantees provided in Law No. 02-03, including access to a lawyer or to a doctor, and to facilitate the access of human rights organizations to detained persons, in connection with the CNDH;
• Open a frank and open debate on the objectives and aims of the new migration policy of Morocco, in the light of Recent events
• Prevent racist overflows of police officers when acting on a specific population, as in the case of arrests of black people who are not Moroccan nationals.

To present these elements and alert public opinion, government officials and actors of international cooperation, GADEM will organize a press conference on Thursday, October 11, 2018 from eleven o’clock res, at the headquarters of the association: 54 avenue de France apartment 3. (Tramway: Avenue de France) Rabat Agdal.

For any information: contact@gadem-asso.org

[1] The GADEM has made the choice to use the “black people who are not Moroccan nationals” to emphasize that these arrests and forced displacements are aimed solely at foreign persons on the basis of their skin color. In addition, the collective nature of the arrests and detentions reinforces the racial dimension of these operations.