The European Parliament has requested this week the appearance of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, before the Committee on Civil Liberties to explain the Government's actions in the tragedy of June 24 on the Nador (Morocco) border with Melilla, where at least 23 immigrants died trying to cross the fence.
The invitation from the European Parliament does not oblige the minister to attend, although some sources explain that this type of call occurs on a regular basis.
Recently, those responsible for the Interior of Denmark, Croatia or Greece have appeared, the latter even last week.
Sources from this parliamentary commission, which manages migration-related issues in the European Parliament, point out that there is still no date set on the calendar.
The next meeting will take place in September and the approved resolution only asks that the appearance be "as soon as possible".
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The decision, which has come to light this Thursday, was taken on Monday at the meeting of coordinators of all the political groups in Parliament at the request of Anticapitalist MEP Miguel Urbán, who belongs to the Left group.
Urbán is no longer part of United We Can (UP), a formation with which he concurred in the last elections.
The MEP urged to request the appearance of the head of the Spanish Interior: "We demand that Mr. Grande-Marlaska explain to us at the European Parliament how he continues to praise Morocco and its work of 'containing' immigration with more than forty deaths behind his back " , has insisted in a statement.
“In our opinion, these deaths are to blame and that is the Moroccan regime.
But also responsible: the Spanish Government,
Urbán's request did not have any objections and received the support of the Civil Liberties Commission, chaired by the socialist Juan Fernando López Aguilar.
This practice, the request for appearances, which is common in the European Parliament when episodes of this type occur at any of the European borders, is not common in the Congress of Deputies, where the PSOE and UP vote against the requests for appearances of the members of the Government formulated by the opposition.
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Sudanese migrants in the streets of Melilla
Riot agents cordon off the area after the arrival of migrants from Morocco at the Melilla fence. Photo: AP |
Video: EPV
The death of at least 23 migrants at the border fence between Morocco and Melilla already reached the European Parliament during last week's plenary session in Strasbourg, in a debate in which Spanish deputies from different parties, as well as the European Commission, They called for an independent investigation.
"Our priority right now on the border is to provide medical treatment and fully establish what happened," said the European Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson, who joined the requests of the African Union and the United Nations to launch an investigation in this regard and applauded that the Prosecutor's Office is already doing it in Spain.
United We Can has been critical from the beginning of the reaction of the PSOE in this matter, which it considers very lukewarm, and has even spoiled the first words of President Pedro Sánchez when praising the actions of the Moroccan authorities.
"I had not seen the images when I said that Melilla was well resolved," he acknowledged days later.
However, the minority partner of the Government, which maintains strong discrepancies with the PSOE on immigration policy, wants it to give more explanations in Congress.
In line with what was requested in Europe, the UP parliamentary group, together with ERC, EH Bildu, Más País, CUP and BNG, registered a letter last week calling for the creation of a commission to investigate "compliance with human rights on the border between Spain and Morocco in Ceuta and Melilla”.
This same Wednesday, the National Human Rights Council of Morocco, a body that defines itself as independent, but whose president is chosen by King Mohamed VI, blamed the Spanish authorities for not providing "the necessary assistance and relief" to the victims of the tragedy.
“Human rights have to be respected in Melilla and throughout the world.
There is no relativism,” the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, reacted shortly after the report was released on Cadena SER.