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Sahrawi Woman Flees Forced Marriage, Seeks Asylum in Spain
Wednesday 1 January 2020, by
Sentenced to marry a man she does not love, a young Sahrawi woman managed to escape. She joined Barcelona with illegal papers.
The young Sahrawi girl arrived at Barcelona airport with fake travel documents, after having tricked the vigilance of the control posts at the Algiers airport.
She was able to leave Tindouf, her native village, thanks to the support of her mother. "My father had threatened to kill me if I didn’t accept the marriage," the young girl confided to the Spanish media at Barcelona international airport. In addition to the press, Spanish association actors had also made the trip to listen to the young survivor and provide her with assistance.
According to the Iberian media, the young woman’s asylum application was initially rejected, before being accepted last Saturday, after an appeal by her lawyer Natàlia Castellano Boladeras, filed with the Ministry of the Interior. The young victim’s counsel also filed a request for protection with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Pending a favorable outcome to her political asylum application, the young woman has already left "the repatriation service", the same source specifies.