ECCHR | 03.10.2017
Expulsions conducted by Spain at the EU’s external borders violate the European Convention on Human Rights
Berlin/Strasbourg, 03 October 2017 – Spanish authorities systematically and often violently expel refugees and migrants at the border with Morocco. This long-standing practice of push-backs at the external borders of the European Union (EU) is unlawful. Automatic expulsions violate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), as the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) today ruled in Strasbourg. The judgment came in response to two complaints against Spain brought to the ECtHR in February 2015 by two refugees from Mali and Cote d’Ivoire based on the initiative and expertise of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). The Court’s decision states that Spain’s push-back practices at the Spanish-Moroccan border are in violation of Article 4 Protocol 4 (prohibition of collective expulsions) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) ECHR.