Moroccan Migrant Alleges Police Brutality in Spanish Detention Center

The witness claims that on July 21, between 11:30 p.m. and midnight, a cellmate asked for medical assistance "because he was feeling severe toothache." A few minutes later, agents from the center entered the cell and one of them pushed the cellmate, who ended up on the ground. That’s when the agents kicked him, causing injuries to his eye. The agents then violently grabbed him and took him out of the cell, the witness describes in his complaint, adding that the other cellmates also witnessed the assault.

As for the victim, he said that the agents did not take him to see the center’s doctor, but rather locked him in a room for an hour and mocked him, even refusing to give him water while he was in intense pain. "I wanted to commit suicide because I had lived such a difficult situation without anyone paying attention to my complaints and my pains," confided the victim, who cut himself on the chest and arm.

The victim and the witness asked the court to suspend their deportations so that "a judicial investigation can be opened to determine responsibilities and punish the guilty parties." However, a report from Psychologists Without Borders (PSF) calls for the "immediate" release of the witness due to a "high" and "imminent" risk of suicide. The person concerned had already attempted suicide a few weeks earlier.

"There is no suicide prevention protocol, no specific assessment of mental health or emotional distress due to detention, and the risk of suicide is not assessed," deplored the Ombudsman in his latest report on the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (MNP). And to also denounce the absence, two years after the suicide of Marouane Abouobaida in the center, of a "register of complaints for ill-treatment and a protocol to deal with complaints and reports of ill-treatment".