Spanish mea culpa over El Ejido racist incidents
"We should all be self-critical over the El Ejido incidents, and we have taken note of errors to avoid that this occurs again," said the head of Andalusia autonomous government, Manuel Chaves.
The Moroccans settled in El Ejido, an Andalusian locality near Almeria, were prey last week to vandalism acts in retaliation to the murder of a Spanish woman, allegedly by a mentally-disturbed Moroccan. Some 52 Moroccans were seriously injured and 17 arrested during the clashes.
The murder last week of a Spanish woman by a Moroccan national does not mean that all Maghrebans are murderers, he told Spanish daily El Pais, adding that El Ejido is a peaceful community and that not all its inhabitants are racist.
Regarding the problem of security, the Spanish official said the immigrants cannot be held responsible for security problems which cannot either be connected to a particular race, ethnic group or religion.
As to the problem of housing, he said that the mayor of El Ejido refused to grant land for the construction of houses for immigrants. He also held him responsible for tarnishing the image of the locality and deteriorating relations between Morocco and Spain.
The incidents were officially denounced by the Moroccan government, political parties, trade unions and ngos and the Moroccan chamber of advisors (upper house of parliament), called for the creation of a Moroccan-Spanish parliamentary cell to examine the different aspects of the living conditions of the Moroccan community and means to improve these conditions.
The Moroccan league of human rights, for its part, expressed concern over the upsurge of racism against immigrants in Spain and protested against the passive reaction of the Spanish authorities to the violent acts which targeted the Moroccan community.
Relatedly, social affairs secretary general at the Spanish Ministry of Employment, Amalia Gomez, who is currently visiting Rabat, apologized to Morocco for the racist attacks against Moroccan immigrants.
"We deplore these incidents which cannot be imputed to the whole Spanish people. The authors of these acts have brought shame to the Spanish people and I apologize to the Moroccans," Amalia Gomez told the Spanish news agency EFE.
The El Ejido violent acts were brought up at a meeting Wednesday in Rabat between the visiting Spanish official and Moroccan minister of justice and deputy chairman of the Hassan II foundation of Moroccan expatriates, Omar Azziman.
Amalia Gomez held another meeting with chairman of the Moroccan Red Crescent, Mehdi Bennouna. The two sides decided to give special attention to the minor immigrants through the elaboration of social integration and rehabilitation programs.
The Spanish official will be meeting this Thursday Moroccan minister of Social development and employment, Khalid Alioua and the representatives of the Spanish community settled in Morocco.
