By Inés Benítez
MALAGA, Spain, Oct 24 2013 (IPS)

“It’s just like a prison. One day in there is like 100 years,” says Jennifer, a 35-year-old Nigerian woman, describing what her aunt went through in the Immigrant Detention Centre (CIE) in this city in southern Spain before she was deported.

But perhaps it’s even worse than a prison.

In women’s prisons in Spain, the guards and other staff are female. But in the CIEs, female immigrants “are prisoners in jails supervised by men,” the president of the Platform for Solidarity with Immigrants in Málaga, Luis Pernía, told IPS.

That means conditions are ripe for abuse.

The second hearing in a trial against five Spanish police officers charged with sexually abusing female detainees in the Málaga CIE in 2006 will take place Oct. 30. At the time, the CIE was operating in a former military barracks, which was closed in June 2012 because of the ruinous state of the installations.

Tie clips were found on the shelves of the women who filed complaints that they were raped. “The cleaning women found condoms and bottles of alcohol. Police officers without shirts were caught on film embracing female detainees,” the lawyer handling the case, José Luis Rodríguez, told IPS.

These cases of alleged abuse, which have come to trial seven years later, were just “the tip of the iceberg,” said Rodríguez, an expert on immigration with Andalucía Acoge (Andalusia Welcomes), an NGO that works on behalf of immigrants.

There is “a sensation that these police enjoy absolute impunity, fuelled by the lack of transparency, regulations, and controls” in the CIEs, he said.

Four of the six women who reported the sexual abuse were deported the same year they spoke out. “What would have happened if the victims were Spanish women?” asked Hakima Soudami, a Moroccan woman who serves as an intercultural mediator for Accem, an organisation that provides assistance to immigrants and refugees.

Pernía said Spanish society has not yet heard or listened to the problems faced by immigrants in the CIEs. Fear plays a role in this. One woman who was held in the CIE in Málaga and later released was too frightened to tell her story to IPS.

According to Spanish immigration law, the CIEs are “public establishments of a non-penitentiary nature…for the detention and custody of foreigners subject to deportation orders.” Legally, immigrants can only be held there for a maximum of 60 days.

There are seven CIEs in Spain, with a capacity to hold 1,526 people, government sources told IPS. In 2012, 11,325 immigrants were taken into custody in the centres, and of that total, “4,390 were released that year,” the Interior Ministry informed parliament in a document dated Oct. 17.

Women in the CIEs “do not eat well, and get sick,” said Jennifer, who lives in Spain with her Spanish husband.

Women immigrants “are denied the basic right to healthcare within an institution of the state, which can even lead to death,” Paloma Soria, an activist, told IPS. She coordinated the report “Women in the CIEs; Realities behind bars”, published in 2012 by the NGO Women’s Link Worldwide.

Death was what Samba Martine, a 34-year-old Congolese woman, found in the Aluche CIE, in Madrid, on Dec. 19, 2011. Because the authorities did not have her health records, she did not receive the antiretroviral treatment she needed, and was not taken to hospital until the day she died.

The ensuing scandal “has not helped bring about measures to prevent a repeat of the tragedy,” says an Oct. 11 communiqué issued by the campaign to close down the CIEs – “CIEsNo” – which groups some 30 rights groups in the southern city of Valencia.

“In case of pregnancy, the women do not receive regular checkups, nor are they informed of their right to get an abortion,” which is legal on demand in the first trimester in Spain, Soria said. She described the denial of these rights as “appalling.”

In August 2006, a Brazilian woman with a high-risk pregnancy, who was a witness to the police abuse that had come to light a month earlier in the Málaga CIE, suffered a miscarriage while awaiting deportation.

Some female immigrants arrive in Spain as victims of human trafficking. But they are held in the CIEs and deported without being identified as victims, the president of Andalucía Acoge, Silvia Koniecki, told IPS.

“Effective oversight of these centres by non-governmental organisations is needed to overcome this serious problem of defencelessness,” she said.

Soudami had a hard time containing her emotions as she said “immigrant women suffer misfortune from the start. They are fleeing from war and from poverty.

“In some cases, their families have been killed, and they walk long distances with their [surviving] children. They come from Nigeria, Sierra Leone… it takes them years and they suffer mistreatment before they manage to pay for the trip in ‘pateras’ [the small wooden fishing boats used by traffickers to transport migrants into Spain] and end up in the CIE – if they survive the journey.”

Soudami has been living in Málaga for 15 years. Her work has brought her into contact with many women held in the CIE, and she says she is “disgusted” by the treatment they receive from the authorities.

Complaints about not enough, and poor-quality, food, a lack of information and outright misinformation, and a lack of interpreters for immigrants who don’t speak Spanish are some of the problems documented by the Women’s Link Worldwide report.

In several CIEs visited by members of the organisation, the women were given less time than the men outside in the patio, and their common areas were smaller than the men’s. In the Valencia CIE, they had to clean their rooms themselves, while there was a cleaning service for the men’s rooms, Soria said.

Last year, the government approved the draft of a decree to temporarily regulate the CIEs. But the text does not include “in-depth modifications,” according to Rodríguez.

Human rights groups are demanding, for example, that the CIEs be overseen by civilian guards rather than the police.

In 2010, an underage boy from Nigeria who was being held in the Málaga CIE, and who had a long history of abuse and mistreatment suffered until he made it to Spain, was deported despite the recommendations to the contrary made by several organisations.

“Immigration policies prevail over human rights,” said Pernía. “The dehumanisation is terrible.”

The death of a young Senegalese man from tuberculosis in Spain, following alleged lack of medical care, triggered a new outcry by civil society organisations against the law passed last year that excludes undocumented immigrants from the public health system except in emergencies.

“There are cases of undocumented pregnant women and children running into difficulties getting health care at hospitals and health centres. There are quite a number of instances,” Sylvia Koniecki, the head of Andalucía Acoge (Andalusia Welcomes), an NGO that works on behalf of immigrants, told IPS.

Immigrants in Spain have little access to public healthcare. Credit: Bigstock/IPS

Royal decree-law 16/2012, enacted Apr. 20, 2012 by the government of the rightwing People’s Party (PP), stipulates that foreign women have the right to public health care during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-partum period, regardless of their legal status in the country.

It also states that all undocumented immigrants under 18 shall receive free health care “in the same conditions as Spanish citizens,” and those over 18 shall receive “emergency health care in cases of serious illness or accident due to any cause, until they are medically discharged.”

As a result, most undocumented immigrants have limited access to health care. They can purchase state health insurance for 710 euros (913 dollars) a year, excluding medicines, but many of them cannot afford it, human rights groups say.

Alpha Pam, a 28-year-old undocumented Senegalese immigrant, died Apr. 21 at the Inca Hospital in Majorca, one of the Balearic Islands off the east coast of Spain, from tuberculosis. His family complained of negligence, while the authorities claim that he received proper care. However, the hospital’s director, Fernando Navarro, was removed from his post on Wednesday May 22.

The case was reported to the European Commission – the EU executive – on May 17 by the Communist Party-led Izquierda Unida (United Left) coalition.

As part of its fiscal austerity policies, the government of conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy estimated savings of 500 million euros (645 million dollars) as a result of cancelling the health cards of 873,000 undocumented immigrants as of September 2012.

But “there will be no such savings,” said Gabriel Ruiz, who is in charge of the migrants’ programme for the southern city of Málaga’s branch of Doctors of the World, an international humanitarian organisation. He said exclusion from primary health care would only mean more users coming to the emergency services “which are more expensive to provide.”

Ruiz told IPS that the immigrant population is generally in a state of social exclusion and is therefore more vulnerable to diseases propagated by overcrowding or inadequate nutrition. “Excluding immigrants from the public health system not only puts their health at risk, but also that of the rest of society because of the possible spread of illnesses,” he stressed.

The government justifies the measures by claiming that undocumented immigrants were overloading the health system. But a 2012 report by the Ecology and Development Foundation (ECODES) concluded that Spanish citizens were the main users of the public health system.

The Málaga branch of Doctors of the World and Málaga Acoge (Málaga Welcomes) have met with immigrants who show them bills to be paid for emergency health care, which is against the decree-law. “They come to us in desperation, with invoices for huge sums that are accumulating interest because they have not been paid,” said Ruiz.

The government of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, also in the hands of the PP, said on May 8 that it would cancel all improperly issued bills and repay the money that immigrants have shelled out for emergency health services.

Each one of the 17 autonomous communities that make up Spain has applied the decree-law differently. Andalusia, Catalonia, Asturias, the Basque Country and the Canary Islands have refused to enforce it.

Social organisations in Andalusia – where the province of Málaga is located – are drawing attention to the many cases they encounter, and solving most of them by acting as intermediaries between immigrants and the authorities.

According to Ruiz, “there is a lack of clear guidelines from the local government for the health facilities in Andalusia.

“In a single week we have had two or three cases of undocumented immigrants who have been refused primary care or have been directed to other bodies like the National Institute of Social Security, when it was the responsibility of the health centre itself to provide assistance,” Ruiz said.

The provincial health authority in Málaga admitted that there have been instances, even before the decree-law came into force, but said they were “isolated cases” that they were trying “to solve as soon as possible,” a spokesperson told IPS.

But “there should not be a single case,” Alejandro Cortina, the head of Málaga Acoge, told IPS. “Precise instructions from the provincial authority to the hospitals and health centres are needed in order to keep this from happening.”

A study carried out by Málaga Acoge from Sept. 1 to Dec. 17, 2012, found 42 cases at 20 health centres in six Andalusian provinces, affecting 69 immigrants, of whom 77 percent were undocumented.

The report says 38 percent of those affected were denied a new health card, 23 percent were refused an appointment with a primary health care doctor, and another 23 percent were billed for the health care they received. Among those affected were eight children under 18 and three pregnant women.

Ruiz said he believes these cases are just the tip of the iceberg, and that the number of undocumented immigrants facing difficulties in accessing health care or being wrongly charged for services is much higher.

In a tour of primary care health centres in Málaga, employees confirmed to IPS that there was a marked decline in the number of undocumented immigrants seeking care, which they attributed to a lack of information among users about the continuity of services for immigrants in Andalusia in spite of the decree-law.

However, some receptionists have turned immigrants away. The report by Málaga Acoge concludes that most instances of denial of health services to undocumented immigrants were the responsibility of public health centre staff in direct contact with the public.

“We used to be seen as really useful, and now we’re a pain in the neck,” said Roberto Suárez, an Ecuadorian who was complaining about proposed fines or prison sentences that could target Spanish citizens who help undocumented immigrants.

A proposed reform of article 318 of Spain’s penal code states that anyone who intentionally and with a profit motive helps non-European Union nationals without the proper documents to remain in Spain, thus violating the laws governing the entry or stay of foreigners, would be subject to a fine or six months to two years in prison.

Anyone caught helping undocumented immigrants to enter or make their way across Spain would be subject to the same punishment. It would be up to prosecutors to decide whether to drop charges in cases in which the aim was merely to provide humanitarian assistance, by giving someone a ride, clothing, cash or shelter, for instance.

The proposed reform of the criminal code was approved by the Council of Ministers in October 2012, but has not yet been introduced to parliament.

Some 30 national and international organisations have launched the campaign “La hospitalidad no es delito” (Hospitality Is Not a Crime), to protest the possible prosecution of people providing aid to undocumented immigrants.

The groups complain that the reform would “criminalise” solidarity towards immigrants.

“For years we have been one of the cogs in the development of Spain, and today we are harassed and persecuted,” Suárez, the president of ASIMEC, the Association of Ecuadorian Immigrants in the southern city of Malaga, told IPS.

Mamen Castellano, the head of Andalucía Acoge, (Andalusia Welcomes), an NGO in southern Spain that works on behalf of immigrants, told IPS that under the proposed penal code reform, a taxi driver who gives a ride to an undocumented immigrant could be subject to prosecution for “facilitating transit”.

She also said people who rent a room to immigrants, thus “helping them remain in the country,” could face charges as well.

In addition, the groups taking part in the campaign complain that the decision to press charges would be left in the hands of prosecutors. They argue that the proposed bill should instead simply specify that people who were merely providing humanitarian assistance would be legally exempt.

The proposed article is “outrageous” because “it presumes that we are all guilty” unless a prosecutor decides otherwise, lawyer Jaume Durá, the head of the Valencia chapter of the Spanish Commission for Aid to Refugees (CEAR), told IPS.

He said “solidarity should not be demonised.”

“This is disrespectful towards immigrants who one way or another find ourselves in distant lands,” said Suárez, who has lived in Spain for 13 years. “Our only crime has always been, and always will be, to work and try to improve the lot of our families.”

Andalucía Acoge has been trying to get officials in different city governments to reject the “arbitrary” way the proposed penal code reform is written, Castellano said.

Some lawyers say the proposed reform would only be used to crack down on abuses against immigrants by people seeking to make a profit, by charging unfairly high rents, for example. But NGOs are demanding that the article be rewritten because it is overly vague.

The groups point to local governments and civil society organisations that are designing projects like housing assistance aimed at improving the social integration of immigrants, and argue that these efforts could open them up to prosecution if article 318 is reformed.

The article was originally designed to protect victims of human trafficking and other abuses. But its proposed modification could lead to legal action against people merely helping immigrants out of solidarity, the campaign web page warns.

In December 2012, lawyers, judges, university professors, priests and others who came together in the campaign Salvemos la Hospitalidad (Save Hospitality) began to collect signatures to oppose the reform of article 318. So far 54,000 people have signed the petition.

“This is the limit! They’re trying to turn immigrants into scapegoats,” said
Betty Roca, head of the area of migration and co-development in Psychologists without Frontiers, which forms part of the campaign to close down Spain’s Immigrant Detention Centres (CIEs) – “CIEsNo” – which has joined Salvemos la Hospitalidad.

“We can’t criminalise something that has to do with human rights,” Roca told IPS.

Human rights organisations have long criticised the conditions in which undocumented immigrants are held, basically as prisoners, in the CIEs.

Both the government of the right-wing People’s Party and the last administration, of Spain’s PSOE socialist party, “have taken a wrongheaded approach to the issue of immigration, stirring up fear, racism and xenophobia,” Castellano maintained.

Since healthcare reform was implemented in September 2012 by the administration of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, undocumented immigrants only have the right to free public healthcare in cases of emergencies, pregnancies, births, or for pediatric treatment.

In 2009, Salvemos la Hospitalidad criticised article 53 of the reform of Spain’s immigration law pushed through by then socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (2004-2011), which established fines for “promoting the illegal stay in Spain” of undocumented immigrants.

Castellano said it was “unfair” that “during a boom period we thought it was fine for immigrants to come, but now that there aren’t even jobs in construction or agriculture, they are being stripped of more and more rights.”

There are foreign nationals who had their papers in order as long as they had a job, but who lost their visas or permits when they became unemployed.

“We mustn’t forget that if there are undocumented immigrants, it is also because employers themselves took advantage of our ignorance of our rights and deceived us with false hopes that our situation would be regularised, because it was convenient for them to have employees off the payroll and to pay wages under the table,” Suárez said.

Spain is one of the European countries hit hardest by the global financial crisis. The country’s 26 percent unemployment rate is the highest in Europe. Spending has been slashed in areas like health and education, and social discontent has given rise to frequent street protests.

Spanish citizens are even moving abroad in search of opportunities. “Spaniards were also immigrants and were welcomed in many countries, where they strengthened the development of those places,” said Suárez.