“I did not choose to be a refugee. It was not by choice that I left my country and my family, whom I love, but because I have been a victim since I was just a child of tribal warfare and religious discrimination that put my life in danger in Sudan”, thus begins the letter to which La Vanguardia has had access where Basir, 24, cries out to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for his international protection and to be transferred to Spain.
The story of Basir —fictitious name to preserve his anonymity— is especially relevant this Saturday, since one year ago today a tragedy that should never have happened. More than 1,500 migrants, most of them from Sudan like Basir, tried to jump over the border fence that separates Morocco and Spain to “flee the war in search of a safe place, a place to live and be protected.” At least 23 people died and almost 80 are still missing today in one of the worst tragedies on the southern Spanish border.
The young man managed to cross all the fences of the Chinatown border crossing just a year ago but, once in Melilla, he was one of the 470 hot returns that occurred that day. This was concluded by the Ombudsman last October after an investigation contrary to what the Ministry of the Interior always defended, that the “rejections at the border” occurred within the law. He suffered – he assures – undeserved violence from both the Moroccan and Spanish border guards. “I was brutally beaten, tied up as if I were a criminal and threatened.”
From the legal team of DEMOS, Human Rights Legal Study, which handles Basir’s case, they do not hesitate to directly classify them as “illegal returns” because they have violated all the rules of procedure. “All the people who entered that day saw their rights violated and they did not have the possibility of requesting asylum.”
Basir has been sleeping on the streets of Morocco ever since and confesses to the president that he lives with “fear and anguish”. On December 13, 2022, he requested at the Spanish Embassy in Rabat (Morocco) to be transferred to Spanish territory to later be able to request international protection, under article 38 of the asylum law, for being a victim of persecution for religious and ethnic in their country of origin. Six months have passed and his request has not been resolved. He trusts that, with this letter, Pedro Sánchez “accepts my request and allows me to be transferred to request asylum in Spain.”
Basir’s legal team ensures that his case is paradigmatic because the majority of people of Sudanese origin receive asylum status. “If he were in Spain, he would have a 90% chance that it would be granted,” say the lawyers based on statistical data by country for the last five years from the Ministry of the Interior. In this line, the lawyers denounce the constant denial of visas to black people. “Most of them have no other chance, the only one left to them by the state is to jump that fence or take a chance on a boat.” This is also expressed by the young Sudanese in his letter: “I would never have tried to jump the fence if I had another option, Mr. President, but because of my skin color, I would never be able to obtain a visa to reach a safe country in another way.”
Refugees from Afghanistan have used the same procedure as Basir to come to Spain, as detailed by foreign sources to this newspaper. “They are not black people. We see and contrast that there is a differential and discriminatory treatment between different origins”, express Basir’s lawyers. They also saw it with the temporary protection resolutions granted to the thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war (almost 180,000 to date). “Is it my skin color that prevents me from receiving the same treatment as people from Ukraine and other countries?” the young man asks the President of the Government.
The DEMOS legal team raised the case last May with four UN rapporteurs and two working groups of the organization to denounce “the different human rights violated.”
Foreign sources inform La Vanguardia that it is not usual for asylum requests to be made from embassies, but rather from national territory. In fact, they are so few that there is no developed procedure for how to proceed, they admit. However, Basir’s lawyers state that, although article 38 is not specified, it does exist and is part of the asylum law 12/2009.
Authorization for the transfer request must be made by the Spanish ambassador in Morocco, consulting other bodies, to decide whether or not to proceed with the transfer of Basir to Spain. Foreign Affairs has reported that they have proof of his case, but have not provided further details.
“How can a person who has been a refugee for years and suffered different forms of violence be detained in a torturing environment?” Basir’s lawyers wonder. The destination of this young man, born in the South Kordofan region, was never Europe. At just 15 years old, he witnessed the murder of part of his family and almost did not live to tell about it. He decided to flee from that place and go live with his uncles, who subjected him to constant violence and persecution just because he is a Christian and wanted to convert him to Islam. Even as a minor, Basir left his country and passed through Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Morocco, countries where he continued to encounter the violence from which he always wanted to flee.
“I will continue fighting for my human rights and for the rights of other refugees as long as my exhausted forces allow me, it has been 10 years looking for a safe place in the world and the fatigue is more unbearable every day. I only ask to be treated as a human being ”, he ends in his letter addressed to Pedro Sánchez.
