Press release: Human Rights Denied: 40 Years of the Moroccan Community in Gibraltar

Full report now available: - direct download here.

TV coverage of the report launch can be viewed online via the GBC website: watch extracts from the ICTUR press conference.

On 12 October 2009 a delegation from the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (‘ICTUR’) will present the findings of its inquiry on the subject of the human rights of the Moroccan community in Gibraltar.  The main issues of concern to ICTUR are by now well known and widely reported. They are:

• Naturalisation: allegations about slow, arbitrary, and discriminatory processing of applications for citizenship;
• Political Rights: denial of the right to vote to people who have been living, working, and paying taxes in Gibraltar for up to 40 years;
• Public services: ineligibility for certain welfare benefits, and discrimination in relation to health care;  
• Housing: discriminatory provision of public housing and poor quality of rented accommodation; and
• Family re-unification: profound difficulties with visas and travel arrangements leading to prolonged separation of families.

In addition to these specific problem areas, ICTUR reports that ‘we have encountered an extraordinary lack of transparency and secrecy about matters that ought to be easily accessible’. The ICTUR report discusses the difficulty the lawyers experienced in obtaining access to copies of the various unpublished ‘schedules’ and ‘discretionary schemes’ that establish entitlements to certain public services.  In its report, ICTUR describes the discrimination experienced by the Moroccan community to be of a ‘systemic nature’. 

Over the summer, ICTUR commissioned a formal Legal Advice from one of the UK’s leading discrimination barristers, Karon Monaghan, QC.   This advice confirmed that:

• There are good prospects of succeeding in legal action under sections 1 and 7 of the Gibraltar Constitution;

• There are good prospects of succeeding in legal action under domestic (Gibraltarian) law implementing the Race Directive 2000/43/EC, namely the Equal Opportunities Ordinance 2006 (when read with Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Race Directive 2000/43/EC);

• There may be violations of the terms of the EU-Morocco Agreement, which in material respects is directly effective, as well as the Race Directive 2000/43/EC (when read with Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination);

• ‘There are good prospects of succeeding in legal action under Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and under Articles 2 and 3 of Protocol No 1 to the Convention in respect of the treatment experienced by particular Moroccan workers, including that relating to immigration status, political rights, access to public services, housing, and family visits’.

Towards a solution

Professor Keith Ewing, Vice President of ICTUR, described the legal situation:

‘The evidence we have gathered during the course of this investigation demonstrates a number of serious breaches of substantive provisions of local, regional and international law, and also of non-compliance with fundamental legal principles pertaining to decision-making and the exercise of discretion in the realm of public and administrative law’.  He added, that ‘should a political resolution fail to materialise rapidly, the most convenient route for addressing the problems identified will be through proceedings in judicial review’.

Daniel Blackburn, Director of ICTUR, expressed the hope that the report will help to generate rapid action at the political level to address the situation:

‘Our discussions with local actors, including representatives of the three main political parties, encouraged us to believe that these problems were not insurmountable, and that a political resolution would be a distinct possibility, thus rendering further legal work unnecessary.  The decision of the tripartite ministerial forum securing a negotiated solution to at least one of the major concerns of the Moroccan community provides yet further encouragement for this view’.

The report concludes with a substantial list of recommendations for action addressed separately to each of the Governments of Gibraltar, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Recommendations

To the British Government

• to recognise the contribution over many years made by the Moroccan community towards the maintenance of an important British military facility;
• to engage the Gibraltar Government in discussions with a view to ensuring that rapid progress is made to achieve full compliance with all human rights obligations in respect of the Moroccan community;
• to review the situation on an annual basis and to solicit contributions from all relevant parties, including Unite Gibraltar and the Moroccan associations, and to publish the findings of this review;
• to recognise that all relevant naturalisation criteria and application processes should be published, transparent and accessible, and communicate this view to the Gibraltar Government;
• to recognise the principle that long term residents are entitled to vote; and to liaise with the Gibraltar government with a view to implementing this principle, and if necessary amend British law;
• to liaise with the Gibraltar and Spanish Governments in order to ensure that the transit visas proposed by the Tripartite Ministerial Forum should be made available with immediate effect.

To the Gibraltar Government

• On naturalisation

• to ensure that all relevant rules, criteria and procedural information are published, transparent, and accessible;
• to review the existing rules and policies with a view to eliminating any irrelevant barriers to applicants (such as inappropriate language tests) ;
• to put in place a timetable for dealing with applications speedily, transparently, and consistently.

• On political rights and the right to vote

• to commit immediately to extending the franchise to all long-term residents of Gibraltar;
• to consult all interested parties about the content and implementation of any changes to electoral law;
• to legislate within 12 months from the date of this report to extend the franchise to long-term residents.

• On social security and welfare benefits

• to publish a comprehensive guide to all discretionary and non-discretionary benefits, pensions and other forms of welfare support provided by the State, by Community Care, and any other public or private bodies;
• to publish the criteria and application processes for all social security and welfare benefits (whether publicly or privately administered) and to ensure that the information is accessible to all who wish to consult it;
• to eliminate all forms of discrimination in relation to welfare benefits so that Moroccans enjoy the same access to all benefits (both public and private) as do Gibraltarians, and on the same terms as other Gibraltarians.

• On health care

• to ensure full access to public health services for the family members of the Moroccan community during their visits to Gibraltar;
•  to take positive steps with immediate effect to remove any health care charges incurred by the families of Moroccan workers not incurred by Gibraltarians;
• to liaise with the British and Spanish Governments to secure an agreement on transit rights into Spain for access to hospitals and healthcare facilities for the Moroccan community.

• On education and language training

• to take positive steps to ensure that Moroccan children in Gibraltar are not prevented from attending school on the grounds of their citizenship or legal status;
• to take positive steps to ensure that Moroccan parents should not be charged any school fees or other fees for education other than fees that would also be charged in respect of Gibraltarian children;
• to introduce publicly funded English language training for those who wish to have access to it, especially so long as English language proficiency remains a condition of eligibility for natutalisation.

• On housing

• to amend the Housing Allocation Schedule to remove the discriminatory provisions that restrict public housing to Gibraltarians, British, Commonwealth, and EU citizens;
• to publish a revised Housing Allocation Schedule and to make full details of the allocation criteria and application process available by ensuring that these are published, transparent and accessible;
• to renovate the Buena Vista hostel, and take concrete steps to ensure that the sub-standard private sector accommodation rented by members of the Moroccan community is brought up to decent standards.

• On family re-unification

• to liaise with the British and Spanish Governments to ensure that the transit visas proposed by the Tripartite Ministerial Forum should be made available with immediate effect;
• to permit Moroccan nationals working and resident in Gibraltar to have their families live with them on a permanent basis, by liberalising any visa restrictions;
• to put an immediate end to the process of confiscating the passports of the families of Moroccans during their visits to Gibraltar, and introduce decent facilities at the ferry terminal.

To the Spanish Government

• to liaise with the British and Gibraltar Governments to ensure that the transit visas proposed by the Tripartite Ministerial Forum should be made available with immediate effect;
• to liaise with the British and Gibraltar Governments with a view to extending the concept of transit visas adopted by the Tripartite Ministerial Forum;
• to ensure that visas for non-urgent medical treatment can be issued within a rapid time-frame so as substantially to reduce the current ‘10 day wait’ that we have been advised is the current time-frame.