Felipe Castillo is a renowned lawyer from Melilla that he has had an unpleasant experience with the Spanish Consulate in Nador and with the agents in charge of his custody. It happened this Monday when he was trying to access the consular headquarters with a client, who claimed his services because they denied him a visa without any explanation.
The lawyer from Melilla has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman and insists that he wants to go all the way. His purpose is to clarify responsibilities.
You have had problems at the Nador Consulate. What happened?
Indeed, this Monday I had a serious problem at the door of the Spanish Consulate in Nador. I personally went to the Consulate because a colleague told me that a client had been denied the visa she had requested and that they refused to give her information on the reason for the denial.
When I arrived at the door of the Consulate, it would be approximately 1:15 p.m., I met with the client and my partner. She handed me a standardized form, with four blank boxes, without marking any of them. This is important because the Law says that negative resolutions must be motivated, something that the Consulate does not systematically do.
After verifying that the Consulate had indeed done its job poorly, by not checking even a single box with some reason for rejection, I was once again surprised by how little appreciation people have.
Given this, I approached the gate that they have placed on the sidewalk of the street so that no one gets too close, and there was a non-police person there, who apparently filtered the entry of Moroccan citizens. I got him to pay attention, I identified myself as a lawyer and indicated that I intended to come up to see what was the problem my client had.
How have you been treated since then?
At this point, a national policeman came out, I explained the problem to him again and he told me in a bad way and shouting that no one was going up there. I was puzzled by the aggressiveness of the policeman. I insisted that I was his lawyer and that, according to the Law of Procedure applicable to the case, I had every right in the world to be with my client. I insisted that the representation was accredited before the Foreigners’ Office of Melilla and before the Consulate itself, because he signed the authorization to request and collect documentation and that he appeared on the application form as his lawyer.
The policeman said that he didn’t care and that no one went up because they didn’t feel like it. The situation was so surreal that I went to the side office, which handles other issues, and found a normal official, a kind person who tried to help.
The help consisted of going up to the corresponding department and explaining that they had notified a null resolution and that they corrected it. The official came down and told me that they would call the police to let us pass.
Far from it, half an hour passed and no one came out there at all. To this, around 1:50 p.m. approximately he arrived in consul and entered the Consulate. And a few minutes later a policeman with a white beard came out, who told my client to come up. I explained everything to him again, that I did not understand the Spanish language and that I was his lawyer. This second policeman did not care and confronted me looking for a physical confrontation.
That was crazy. The Moroccan policeman who was there and witnessed the events did not know what to do and neither did the people, including my partner.
At that moment, facing me, he said that if I insisted on going up with my client, no one would go up, because he said so.
It is evident that I had two ways out, one a confrontation with those mindless policemen who were preventing me from practicing a recognized profession or letting it be and my client coming up with all the helplessness it causes, not knowing or understanding what they were doing. They made him sign some resolutions and papers and they sent him off in a bad way.
It is clear that this police conduct is contrary to the law and all current regulations. We are before a public Administration. A policeman, except for security reasons, cannot prevent a Spaniard from entering a Spanish Consulate. That disdain, arrogance, contempt and abuse of authority is only contemplated in past times where it was known that the policeman was the law.
Is this problem that you and your client have been having, is it an isolated event or a common practice? To which I am going, tomorrow can it happen to me or to anyone?
Let’s hope it’s an isolated case, because the dignity of many people is always at stake in that consulate and with those execrable practices.
Indeed, this event is not an isolated event. There was a season where Moroccan citizens were prohibited from coming with a representative, violating all the legislation, but apparently the consuls never find out anything.
And that is not acceptable, because there is guilt in monitoring, if the consul does not test how his Consulate is doing, he is as responsible as the one who commits the infraction. Authority and command have a responsibility, even greater.
What should citizens take into account when they are denied a visa? Can you claim? What ways do we have to do it?
I tried to ask for a claim form, but they didn’t have it in the side office, so I couldn’t use the means they should have either. That is to say, complete nonsense.
Why do you think these things happen at the Nador Consulate?
All these things happen because there is no serious control in said Consulate. You write an email and they don’t answer you. You call by phone and they don’t pick up. They do not pay the slightest attention to everything you send and in the end, already tired you have to denounce what happens before the courts.
And in this case it is a crime against fundamental rights, a crime of coercion and another of threats and administrative prevarication and in administrative proceedings it is a destruction of the minimum standards that the police have to interact with citizens. With that example from yesterday (on Monday) I don’t think any of the people who witnessed it have much confidence in the police at the Spanish Consulate in Nador.
How can we solve it?
If I know that I am going to bring it to the attention of Consular Affairs, I am going to file the pertinent complaint in the Duty Court and the Ombudsman, even if the territorial jurisdiction is different, I will go all the way, because no one can be treated as that way typical of dictatorships and other disastrous times.
In turn, I will send the Consulate to your email the receipt of all the complaints and I will wait to see if the consul is good enough to read it and explain. Of course, if they think I’m going to forget it, let them forget it, I’ll go all the way to clear up responsibilities.
