The Jesuit Migrant Service (SJM) presented this July the report 'Ten years looking the other way', the tenth annual publication in this series. Ten years since a group of people began to visit the Centre for the Internment of Foreigners (CIE) in Madrid and to publish annual analyses with the aim of raising social awareness of the hostile reality of CIE and to knock on the door of the Administration to demand the fulfilment of human rights in these centres and their definitive closure.

This year, unfortunately, the report has very little statistical data from the Ministry of the Interior, which is failing in its legal duty of transparency. According to the data handled, 6,473 people were interned last year, 18% less than in 2018. Of these, almost 60% were eventually forcibly repatriated from CIE.

In 2019, the SJM noted serious violations of the rights of foreign nationals, through 1,462 visits by its teams to 793 persons in five CIE in the territory. These violations are a constant in these ten years of SJM's work at CIE, in fact since its opening. The report reviews cases of deficiencies in judicial authorizations for internment; episodes of police violence, even described as torture and degrading and humiliating treatment; cases of self-harm and suicide that have required a severe protocol to limit isolation; internment of minors, as well as people with mental and physical illnesses; serious structural problems in the facilities; obstacles to human assistance from NGOs; shortcomings in legal assistance and interpreters; lack of socio-cultural activities…

The report analyses the defective application of the Rules of Procedure of the CIE, born in. It takes a brief look at first detention facilities, such as the airport's inadmissibility rooms and the repatriation flights managed by Frontex.

SJM once again calls for the closure of the CIEs, or at least, if they are reopened - after closure during the pandemic - for human rights to be guaranteed and for their use to be restricted to very exceptional cases, as a last resort as provided for by law.

You can download the report from these links:

o The original and long version (64 pages) of the report in Spanish can be found at: ly/informecie2019cast

o The short version in Catalan can be found at: ly/informe2019cat

o The short version in English can be found at: ly/informecie2019eng