The acting Ombudsman of Spain, Francisco Fernández Marugán, appeared this Tuesday in the Congress of Deputies before the Mixed Commission on relations with the Ombudsman at the request of several parliamentary groups to talk about the migratory situation in Ceuta, the complaints received related to the start of the school year and the constitutionality of the state of alarm.
Regarding the migratory situation in Ceuta, Fernandez Marugán explained the actions carried out by the Ombudsman after the entry of thousands of people from Morocco on May 17 and 18. Thus, he said that in the first week of June he went to Ceuta where he was able to see the efforts made by the Spanish authorities to manage the situation caused by the actions of the neighboring country.
For several weeks, Morocco admitted the return of small groups of people. Fernandez Marugán has detailed that some of these have filed complaints that are still being processed as they have not received a response from the competent administrations. In this regard, he referred to the case of several Congolese women and a group of Yemeni citizens who, in both cases, had expressed to the UNHCR their willingness to seek asylum in Ceuta. Other persons addressed the Ombudsman stating that they had been returned without any procedure.
The situation of the more than 1,000 minors who entered Ceuta during those days in May was of particular concern to the Ombudsman, who from the very first moment was aware of the conditions under which the reception of these children was being carried out.
During his appearance, Fernández Marugán also recounted the prompt action taken by the Ombudsman on August 13, when, after learning of the expulsion to Morocco of more than 50 minors without being heard and against their will, he did not hesitate to issue a reminder of legal duties to the Ministry of the Interior, that same day, to cease this action, since, in his opinion, it contravened the legally established procedure.
The Ombudsman concluded his intervention on this issue by pointing out that after the judicialization of this matter and the paralyzing of the refunds, he had to suspend actions until the end of the current judicial proceedings.
Improvements for former foster youth
Fernández Marugán expressed his confidence that the approval announced today in the Council of Ministers of the reform of the regulations on foreigners, which the Ombudsman has been demanding for years, will serve to facilitate the transition of minors under guardianship to adulthood in an appropriate manner. “I hope that, from now on, the children under the care of the administrations, when they reach 18 years of age, can be trained and thus be integrated into working life with the same rights and obligations as other young people. This will prevent them from being condemned to social exclusion”.
In March 2020, the Ombudsman recommended to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the amendment of three articles of the Aliens Regulation governing the legal regime of unaccompanied foreign minors to improve their documentation and guarantee them all the rights to which they are entitled as children.
School year
The Ombudsman also explained that, since the beginning of the pandemic, the Ombudsman has carried out actions with the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and with all the regional ministries regarding their management and the provision of resources to deal with the health crisis.
Fernández Marugán pointed out that the complaints received in these first weeks of the academic year have to do with the safety of the classrooms, the use of masks and the suspension of teaching activities for students who cannot attend classes in person.
In this sense, he assured that in order to prevent the health crisis from having a negative impact on education, especially in the case of the most vulnerable groups, an “extraordinary effort” is needed on the part of administrations, education professionals, students and families.
On the other hand, the Ombudsman has reported on the ex officio action initiated by the Ombudsman last September with the Ministries of Education of the Community of Madrid and the Generalitat of Catalonia to obtain official data on the number of places offered for vocational training studies and the forecasts for adapting the current offer to the growing demand.
State of alarm
Finally, Fernández Marugán expressed his surprise at the request to appear to explain the reasons why he decided not to file an appeal of unconstitutionality against Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14, declaring a state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19. Thus, he explained that it is the Ombudsman’s right to appeal or not and that he did not consider it appropriate in this case. “It is strange to ask why a right is not exercised, as if rights were duties. They are not. It is something elementary, it is called independence,” he stressed.
However, the Ombudsman recalled that on September 3, 2020, he signed a Resolution explaining why he did not appeal the state of alarm, which is public and has been published on his website since then.
