Mass arrests in the North of Morocco - our friends in prison

Thanks to the information obtained by the Alarm Phone groups in Oujda and Ceuta, we have learned that more than 100 migrants have been arrested at the Ceuta fences and are imprisoned in Tetuan

During the attempts of several hundrads of migrants to cross the fences into Ceuta in mid-February, a group of them was hunted down by the Moroccan security forces and several were arrested, including some wounded people. Now they are in Tetuan prison, where they have been for more than a month. The Alarm Phone groups in Oujda and Ceuta have tried to have some information on the whereabouts of some of our friends, and, following some phone calls, have now found out that these friends are amongst the detained. By contacting the detained we have learned that more than 100 migrants are arrested and have been put on trial in Tetuan, but probably the number is even higher. The process took place in a record time span: those arrested on the 19th, 20th and 21st of February were sentenced to different lengths of prison time, from 3 to 6 months. The judicial process was characterised by the absence of a just process, some of the detained could not have a look at the minutes and documents of the process, or there was no translation from Arabic. To sum it up, they have endured a disasterous situation.

Consequently, the Alarm Phone 

– declares its support for the victims of this injustice

– denounces the strict rules and the absence of any minimal conditions of a fair process

– demands the Moroccan authorities to respect human rights, guarantee better medical conditions and allow friends to visit the detainees, as families and parents cannot be there

– demands the liberation of all migrants accused of the so-called “attempts at illegal crossings”

– demands human rights to be respected at the Algerian-Moroccan and the Moroccan-Spanish borders

– emphasises that this situation has been caused by European policies based on a security approach that has already failed

– calls upon all initiatives, associations and persons to support these political prisoners by denouncing the lethal European border regime and the lack of respect for human rights on both sides of the Mediterranean

Signed:

Hassane Ammari, Alarm Phone group Morocco/Oujda

Reduan Jalid Mohamed, Alarm Phone group Ceuta