Spanish Court Denies Asylum to Moroccan Family Fleeing Inheritance Dispute Violence

The Moroccan family had applied for asylum in Spain in March 2021, nearly four years after their arrival in the country in September 2017. In its decision dated May 9, the court ruled that the family had not provided sufficient evidence proving they were persecuted, an essential condition for granting them asylum or subsidiary protection. Marco Antonio, Estela, Amador, Matías and Ángel Daniel explained that they had to leave Morocco because they were subjected to a series of threats and assaults from other family members following the distribution of an inheritance, reports Infobae.

Marco Antonio’s mother, as the head of the family after her husband’s death, shared the latter’s inheritance unequally among the children, which caused discontent among Marco Antonio’s brothers and sisters who accused him of misleading their mother. These accusations were followed by violent physical assaults, one of which resulted in the loss of vision in his left eye. It was following these events that the family decided to go to Ceuta in September 2017. But they never reported the facts to the Moroccan authorities, believing that "relatives do not report each other."

The National Court recalls that asylum seekers must prove that they are persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a social group or political opinions. In this case, the Moroccan family could not prove that the threats or assaults suffered from other family members constituted acts of persecution. "Asylum cannot be granted if there is insufficient evidence of a well-founded fear of persecution," the court ruled.

The court also took into consideration the long period that elapsed between the family’s arrival in Spain in September 2017 and the asylum application in March 2021 to reject the Moroccan family’s request, considering that this delay casts doubt on the urgency of protection. The court also rejected the request for subsidiary protection, arguing that the family is not at risk "of suffering any of the serious harms provided for by law," such as torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or the death penalty.