Moroccan Youth Freed After Unlawful Detention in Spanish Immigration Center

The young man was released after his lawyers denounced the case. "The detainee’s file indicated that his expulsion had been suspended by the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of Madrid," the lawyers denounced. The Foreigners Detention Centers (CIE), provided for by the Immigration Law, are temporary places of deprivation of liberty intended for people awaiting expulsion from the national territory. Since the expulsion of the Moroccan had been suspended, his detention at the CIE for more than a month is "illegal," they insist, specifying that the young man was held without reason from January 21 to February 23 at the CIE in Valencia.

The TSJ of Madrid had made its decision, considering that the expulsion order had not examined all the aspects of the case. The judges criticized the Community of Madrid and the administration in general for their "lack of coordination" and "inaction" to regularize the situation of this young Moroccan, a migrant minor who has become an adult, recalling that it is the obligation of all administrations to protect foreign minors arriving on the territory. Only the Pinardi Federation, where the Moroccan was housed until his majority, "accompanied and advised him to initiate the regularization process," the lawyers specify.

"If the administration does not seem to have taken any action to regularize the situation of the Moroccan in Spain when he was a minor, or to facilitate it later, it is not possible to conclude that there are now strong reasons of public interest that require the immediate execution of the expulsion," the TSJ concluded, considering that the Moroccan was under guardianship and could have benefited from the necessary assistance from the administration. For their part, the lawyers demand that "disciplinary measures be taken against those responsible for this illegal detention of the Moroccan and that coordination mechanisms be adopted so that such situations do not recur."