EUROPE/SPAIN - "The way we treat immigrants today will leave a mark in our history"

Friday, 13 February 2015

Ceuta (Agenzia Fides) - "Together with the Church of Tangier we add our voice to that of those who, in the name of justice, demand respect for the rights of those who, for lack of documents, are considered illegal. Migrants are born free and equal in dignity and rights to us (...). These brothers have the right to life and laws force them to risk losing it when they seek the opportunity of a better future ....". This is how the document sent to Fides by the diocese of Cadiz y Ceuta (Spain) begins which highlights the situation at the Spanish border with Morocco.
"We denounce the legal aberration formed by the new Organic Law of Public Security, passed by Congress in Spain, allowing the so-called 'hot return' of foreigners who illegally crossed the border of Ceuta and Melilla; the law discriminates and excludes from protection those foreigners who are in danger".
The text of the diocese continues: "This law denies the equality of persons, denies migrants the right to be heard publicly by a court, and condemns them to punishment we consider cruel for animals ... The laws of a people give measure of its humanization. The way we treat immigrants today, like it or not, will leave a mark in our history".
Finally an appeal: "On behalf of migrants, from the Church of Tangier, we ask the Spanish people not to dirty one’s own history with the iniquity of excruciating suffering caused to thousands of innocent people".
From the data collected by Fides (Association Pro-Human Rights Andalucia) 11,146 people entered in 2014 (from the "southern border"), that is 3,596 more than in 2013. More than 20,000 people, always in 2014, attempted to pass the Ceuta and Melilla network, but only 2,300 succeeded. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 13/02/2015)


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