The most impassable border of the European territory, where Spain enters, is the one that cannot be seen: “it is the wall of legal engineering.” An invisible but very effective obstacle that thousands of people crash into every day looking for a new life far from their homes.
This is what the study “Right to migrate and refuge: the impossible path” denounces, led by the Quepo6 Communication Cooperative and carried out by the jurists of the University of Barcelona (UB), David Moya and Diego Boza.
This work confirms, in the case of Spain, two very different borders depending on the origin of the migrant. For Latin Americans, everything is, for example, much easier than for our closest neighbors, such as the Africans.
The former account for the number of visas granted, while the latter are usually denied that privilege, which condemns them to entering Spain irregularly.
This work draws, without grey, a “hard and incoherent reality of our migration and asylum model.” This legal engineering violates – says David Moya – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by denying thousands of people the right to move freely around the world. Maybe they can leave their country, “but then they are denied entry to the chosen destination,” continues this jurist.
But the most serious and worrying thing for these researchers is that so many barriers at the borders with certain migrants condemn thousands of people to stay in their countries, “despite suffering persecution and danger there,” the study denounces. And many of the who embark on that long journey “get lost on the routes that should have taken them to the chosen destinations in search of protection and/or opportunities.”
These people can spend years, the two jurists note, in transit through third countries and only a small part manages to arrive, but with terrible personal and family costs.”
And another obstacle, now well-worn by European countries, to deny entry of specific migrants. “These people,” says David Moya, “pass through several countries before reaching their destination and that works against them, because if one of those territories through which they transit temporarily is considered “safe,” when they reach their goal they are They say that there is no longer the right to asylum, since they no longer come from a country (the original one) where human rights are violated. Everything is very twisted.
These barriers – the visible and invisible ones – in those defined in this work as Legal and Safe Routes (VLiS) explain why hundreds of thousands of people are forced to use “irregular and dangerous routes to access protection and flee persecution, real threats of death or torture in their countries.”
“It is very clear to us that the current method of filtering at the borders is very unequal depending on the origin of the migrant,” David Moya reiterates. To describe this reality as discriminatory “would still be too much, since we do not have evidence to demonstrate that states carry out this screening of migrants based on their origin deliberately.” But no one can deny that this happens.
And there are some examples, with data, revealed by this study. When talking, for example, about requests for international protection (asylum), it is shocking that 70% of these requests resolved in Spain in 2022 correspond to migrants from Venezuela, Colombia and Peru.
They are countries in which a visa is not required to enter Spain – that makes things much easier for these migrants – and in which, in theory, there are no extreme situations of violation of human rights.
Hence, it remains, at least, strange that so many people from those territories can stay in Spain after being granted asylum.
On the other hand, Moya highlights, citizens of African countries where human rights are violated, “have it much more difficult at this time when they seek international protection.” The explanation? In Africa there are very few consular offices to go to for request these visas, while in Latin America – although in many countries this document is not required – there is more Spanish consular representation.
For David Moya, this reality exudes a clear “policy of obstruction”, when talking about borders, which clearly vetoes the entry into Spain of these African migrants, condemned to resort to irregular routes. The perfect combination so that these very specific groups are later criminalized, being labeled as criminals, when they are only looking for a new life risking their own.
In 2022, 38.5% of asylum requests were presented by citizens of Venezuela, followed by people from Colombia (30.3%) and Peru (7.5%). “The fact that visas are not required for these migrants makes it easier for them to apply for international protection,” says David Moya.
And at this point, it is shocking that nationals of African countries – much closer to Spain – only represented 8.9% of the asylum requests in the year 22. And half were from migrants from North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Egypt, Tunisia and Syria).
These migrants enter, the majority, in boats risking their lives. They cannot use legal and safe routes on that trip. And so many come, reveals Moya, “because the call effect continues to work, since although things are almost impossible for them to migrate legally, they know that once in Spain they have many numbers to stay, even if it is irregularly, In our country”.
The deployment of diplomatic offices in the countries from which the majority of migrants who end up in Spain come is another piece of information that reveals this unfair selection with the origin of the new neighbors that our country wants.
The study reveals that “many of these diplomatic offices, in the case of Africa, are deployed over very large consular demarcations, which forces people who want to obtain a visa to travel long distances”
In states such as Gambia, Burkina Faso, Togo, Liberia or Sierra Leone “there is no Spanish diplomatic mission.” And if this lack, a priori discriminatory, is compared with the number of consulates in Latin America (where a visa is not required in many countries), the inequality at borders once again becomes embarrassing. “The 35 states of the American continent have 46 Spanish consular offices, while the 54 states of the African continent have 39 and 7 of them are in a single country: Morocco,” the study reveals.
The proof of the ineffectiveness of this border model is reflected in other data. This UB jurist remembers that “90% of the migrants who end up working in our country and, therefore, contributing to our wealth entered Spain through illegal means.” If things were done better, Moya repeats, these people could have joined the labor system many years earlier – most take a long time to have a job.”
But when a State is interested in a specific migrant profile, the borders become much more permeable. The example? In 2022, 14,088 temporary residence and work visas were granted to Moroccan women, compared to 1,641 processed for men. This female labor force is needed occasionally for the fruit industry, so the procedures are much faster in these cases.
