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Investigation Underway into Moroccan Teen’s Death at Spanish Migrant Center
Sunday 14 July 2019, by
The causes of the death of a young man of Moroccan origin are, for the time being, still unknown. But an investigation, currently open, will have to determine all the responsibilities in the death of Ilyas, in a center for minors, in Almería, in southern Spain.
An association to help young migrants accuses the guards of a migrant center of disproportionate use of force to neutralize the 18-year-old Moroccan. In the complaint, they even speak of involuntary manslaughter and a possible suffocation with a mattress or pillow.
Ilyas was trying to injure himself by wanting to tattoo himself, say witnesses cited by La Vanguardia. When the guards tried to reason with him, he would have reacted violently and it took six people to calm him down.
Funded by the Andalusian region and managed by a private company, this center had already been the subject of complaints in the past for mistreatment of minors. The managers have always rejected the accusations, describing them as "unfounded". In 2015, for example, a video had been widely circulated on social networks, showing a young man attached to his bed. But the justice had estimated that the images could have been manipulated.
A few years earlier, a young man had lost his life in one of the centers managed by this company. Cardiac arrest had been mentioned at the time. But the victim’s family had noticed the presence of several bruises and contusions on the body.