Yesterday’s adoption by the Senate of the amendment to Spain’s Aliens Act falls short of providing clear guarantees against refoulement and collective expulsions, and of establishing adequate safeguards for the right of every person to seek and enjoy asylum, irrespective of the way they reach Spanish territory, said today Commissioner Muižnieks.
This new legal context has the potential to open a breach in the safeguards the international community has fought hard to establish since World War II. I call on the Spanish authorities to reconsider this amendment.
In the meantime, they should apply the amendment in strict compliance with existing domestic legal provisions which provide unambiguous safeguards against push-backs, and adopt a procedural framework to ensure that Spanish border police in Ceuta and Melilla have clear instructions on how to handle migration flows in compliance with international human rights and refugee protection standards, which are binding on Spain.
Read more on the Commissioner’s work on this issue