Brice O. (anonymized for his protection) filed a complaint to the UN Committee Against Torture challenging Spain’s failure to investigate its use of anti-riot material during the deadly border operation at El Tarajal, Ceuta on 6 February 2014, which caused him permanent loss of sight in one eye. With the support of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Irídia – Center for the Defence of Human Rights, he seeks to hold Spain accountable for its failure to prevent, investigate or redress the harm caused by Guardia Civil officers.
“I find it incredibly dangerous that rubber bullets are being used,” says Brice O. “I bear witness as someone disabled in one eye because of a rubber bullet.” On 6 February 2014, it was still dark as swimmers struggled to stay afloat in waters around the seawall separating Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
After Guardia Civil officers began firing anti-riot material toward people in the water, Brice O. felt something impact his eye. Although there was no protocol regulating the use of this anti-riot material in the water, officers used at least 145 rubber bullets, 355 blanks, and 5 smoke devices in 21 minutes. Brice O. describes choking and gasping for air. “I found it hard to breathe, so I opened my mouth, but then the sea water entered. And then I felt myself losing consciousness a bit.”
14 people were officially declared dead and autopsies confirmed the 5 bodies washed ashore in Spain had drowned. Survivors and NGOs estimate the figure to be much higher. Despite forensic evidence confirming injuries consistent with the impact of rubber bullets, Spanish authorities failed to contact survivors living just a few kilometres away, systematically excluding them from the judicial proceedings.
“The Tarajal investigation was a farce,” says Hanaa Hakiki, directress of ECCHR’s Border Justice team. “There was no real legal assessment of the force used by the Guardia Civil. The last 11 years have been a disgrace and Spain must fully investigate this deadly border operation.”
After 8 years of failed investigations, archived without charge, an appeal is pending at Spain’s Constitutional Court filed by a group of Spanish NGOs including the Spanish Commission for Refugees (CEAR), The Human Rights Association of Spain (APDHE) and Coordinadora de Barrios, in relation to other victims and their relatives who also remain unheard. “It’s an opportunity at the constitutional level to establish the protection of migrants’ right to life at borders,” says Elena Muñoz CEAR, “so that these terrible events do not re-occur and so that families finally have access to truth, justice and reparation.”
The ongoing impunity has led to even deadlier border operations. “For decades, the Spanish Moroccan border has become a site of human rights violations and impunity which impacts black people most violently and gravely. Both the operations at El Tarajal in 2014 and on 24 June 2022 in Melilla show how the indiscriminate use of anti-riot material, pushbacks, the claim of exceptionality, and lack of effective investigations combine to create life-threatening situations causing deaths of Black people at the border,” says Maite Daniela Lo Coco from Irídia.
NGOs such as Stop Balas de Goma, have long demanded the prohibition of rubber bullets due to the risks posed by this uncontrollable, harmful, even lethal munition. United Nations guidance clearly states that rubber bullets should not be targeted at people above the lower abdomen or to disperse crowds. The indiscriminate nature of rubber bullets and their lack of traceability puts the physical integrity and fundamental rights of people at risk.
This complaint follows in a series of legal interventions challenging border violence by ECCHR and forms part of ongoing human rights monitoring work on Spain’s southern border carried out by Irídia and NOVACT.
