Helena Maleno, Spanish migrant rights activist, also the founder of the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, known for its work in support of sub-Saharan migrant communities during the migration process, says she was the victim of a violent expulsion in Morocco. She asks the Moroccan authorities to “stop” the persecution.
“I was violently expelled […] The police were waiting for me at Tangier airport, I did not know what was going on,” she told a press conference on Monday in Madrid. making it known that the facts took place on January 23. That day, she was preparing to return to Morocco where she has lived for nearly 20 years. To her surprise, the Moroccan authorities had put her on a plane to Barcelona. The Spanish activist says she was prevented from drinking water or taking her medication. Her papers had been confiscated. It evokes a “humiliating” treatment. Helena Maleno also confides that she was separated from her 14-year-old daughter for more than a month.
According to her, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior was informed of her expulsion. But this ministry assured AFP that it “had not been aware of these facts and had not participated in them in any way”. The fiftieth birthday is targeted by judicial inquiries in Morocco as well as in his country in recent years. An investigation for human trafficking in connection with its fight against the shipwrecks of migrants in the Mediterranean was also dismissed by the Moroccan justice in 2019. In April 2017, the Spanish justice had closed a procedure without follow-up. A procedure initiated following the transmission of a report outlining the possible links of the activist with a “criminal organization”.
Although she has been off the hook more than once, she says she has always been the victim of harassment. “Since April 2020, I and my family have been the victims of 37 attacks and I hold the Spanish and Moroccan governments accountable,” she continued. She asks them to “stop this persecution.” She confides that she has been followed several times and that the door of her home in Morocco had been forced three times.
“Helena’s case is, unfortunately, a prime example of what can happen to anyone defending (migrant) rights at the borders of the European Union,” said Maria San Martin, of the Ireland-based NGO Front. Line Defenders.
