Declaration of Oujda

In commemoration of the events in Ceuta and Melillla in October 2005
DECLARATION OF OUJDA
International Conference
"Violations of Human Rights at Borders "
October 6, 2007

We,
members of solidarity organizations, national and international networks, grass roots organizations based in countries of the global South and the global North, who work towards the enforcement of basic rights for migrants, asylum seekers and refugees and a just development policy, gathered in the city of Oujda on October 6, 2007, to hold a conference on violations of human rights at borders, thereby following the Euro-African Manifesto’s guidelines.

We pay our respect to all people who died while migrating, especially to those who lost their lives in fall 2005 in Ceuta and Melilla.

We denounce the inhuman conditions, in which migrants have to live: continuously haunted and deported from one side of the border to the other by Moroccan and Algerian forces, eventually proscribed to the peripheral area of Oujda.

We criticize current politics that aim to relocate the ratification of the right of asylum solely to non-European countries and to transfer the exercise of repression, all in the name of “migration management”, thus bearing the responsibility for numerous deaths and extensive suffering.

We reject the criminalization of migrants and the repression to which they are subjected at country and maritime borders.

We condemn the harassment and pressure, with which activists and advocates of human rights are confronted on a daily basis.

We bring to mind our support for the Manifesto of Rabat of July 1, 2006, adopted during the Euro-African Non-Governmental Conference “Migrations, Basic Rights, Freedom of Movement” and demand:

- A thorough investigation of the crimes that have been committed in the nights of September 28/29, 2005 in Ceuta and October 5/6, 2005 in Melilla.

- That the liability of the Moroccan and the Spanish governments for these crimes be recorded.

- That the people in charge and involved persons be held to account.

- That all involved governments respect the basic human rights and international obligations for every person as laid out in the Declaration of Human Rights and all other international conventions and treaties, especially with regard to the treatment of individuals at borders – ashore, at sea and in airports.

- To stop all economical and political pressure by the EU and its member states against countries of origin or transit, as they result from the European Partnership Agreement (EPA) and other agreements, which make these countries the agents of border control, migration management, screening of migrants and their deportation.