Fled Morocco because there being gay is a criminal offence and report not allowed to enter the Peninsula, despite having granted the asylum
After dinner, while the photographer tested the flash in the parking lot of the beach Trampoline in Ceuta, in front of a small mosque, a group of kids moroccan low, smiling, and cuddled up on the hill that goes up to the CETI. Are 50 minutes for the Centre for Temporary Stay of Immigrants closes its doors at 23:00 hours and that no one can neither enter or exit. Arrive eight boys and a girl. The first thing to do is to give thanks for allowing them to tell their story in our horn of paper.
The first to raise the voice is the young man wearing shorts in pink. Called Neta, was born 22 years ago in Tetuan, I was studying Economic and is the best Spanish-speaking group. He arrived two months ago to Ceuta fleeing his family and the Police. “I was in a pub in Ceuta with my boyfriend, who is from Extremadura. A few cousins that live here saw me and chivaron to my family. To return to my home in Morocco, my parents told me that I was going to report you for being gay and that they would call the Police. I carried it in secret and I had to escape to Spain and seek asylum,” he says.
At his side is Yassin, repeinado and with a mustache. He has 28 years old, is from Tangier and crossed the border this week. “10 years ago, when my family found out that she was gay, they kicked me out of home. I’ve been all this time living with friends, but could not endure more”, account. “What I remember most are the times I assaulted you on the street and, when denounced to the Police, I arrested me for being gay. I have slept several times in the dungeon. The agents explained to me that was very feminine for a man to be, and that that was a crime”.
The criminal code moroccan criminalizes “acts against nature with an individual of the same sex”, and the penalties can be up to six years in prison. “There are a few plague victims, a humiliation for our families”, he yells in English, the only girl of the group. Is from the town of Castillejos and arrived eight months ago. His parents was thrown out of the house when they learned that she was a lesbian and had a girlfriend. And her sister reported to the Police. “I was studying in the university and let the career of Business and Communication in order to come here. Now I would like to continue to develop myself,” he says.
The algerian Khanina and the moroccan Chain, showing her a red card asylum-ANTONIO SEMPERE
Are three examples of a situation that repeats itself. They call themselves “refugees because of their sexual orientation”. Are the moroccan gays and lesbians who flee their country because of the repression and violence that they suffer. Whether on the street or in their homes. His intention is to go to the Peninsula, but the first stop you make after asking for asylum in Spain is in the CETI of Ceuta and Melilla. There spend months, even years, until you give them permission to cross. “Some have the red card (which allows you to reside in Spain), and we could move freely but the port won’t let us go up to the ferries that go to Algeciras,” they report.
Want to leave as soon as the CETI, where they share space with the rest of the immigrants that have arrived to Ceuta, both along the border, as by boats or by jumping the fence. Of the approximately 600 inmates of the centre, the vast majority are sub-saharan and algerian. “The workers behaved very well with us and we take care of the problem we have with the rest of immigrants. Many of us assaulted, even sexually. Bother us in the dining room, on the patio, have a mind of their very different”, they make several of the guys.
“I spent a day with a sub-saharan. Realized that I’m gay and I tried to put hand. I called the security center, but, the next day, it hit me,” says Reda. The girl nods, explaining that they also make fun of her. “Here, in Ceuta, we also suffer violence and abuse”. This year, the NGO Human Rights Watch issued a report denouncing that the migrants LGBTI who come to Ceuta with “harassment and abuse indiscriminate, both at the center of immigration as in the streets.”
Mohamed (24 years old, Casablanca) says that five months without seeing her boyfriend, who lives in Morocco and could not escape with him. “We would like to go to Madrid and be happy without that no one can tell us anything. We don’t ask for much.” Chain is the veteran of the group and is one of the few that does not care to give the face. Is 39 years old and came for a year and a half of Tetuan. Last week asked for asylum in Ceuta four other guys. Ayoub (25) note that we have attempted to kill in Morocco. Thami (33) seeks freedom and Hamza and Omar, 19 years old, to enjoy their sexuality without having to hide.
The next morning, at the door of the CETI, also appears Khanina, a girl is a lesbian that takes up to 28 days in Ceuta. She comes from Algeria, and it completes the group of 10 people from the center who have asked for asylum claiming discrimination because of their sexual orientation. “In Algeria we are also persecuted. I was in college with my girlfriend, a few guys I took a picture and sent it to my brother. Then my family found out and I went,” he says.
a few weeks Ago, the minister of Justice and Freedoms of morocco, Mustafa Ramid, was in Geneva Ccompareciendo before the Human Rights Council of the UN. Refused to decriminalize homosexuality in Morocco, in spite of the request of the Council.