Rabat – A new report highlights the xenophobia and racism migrants continue to face in Spain, including those who entered the occupied city of Ceuta in July.
Spain’s Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (Oberaxe) detected 96,270 instances of hate speech and discriminatory narratives in September.
The most alarming finding is that 57% of the content focused on the Ceuta migration crisis following the mass crossings in July.
Europa Press cited Oberaxe data that showed a 4.7% decrease from August, yet the figures remain concerning. In August, similar content generated 101,025 messages.
These messages mainly target migrants, with many portraying them as a “threat to security and social coexistence,” or claiming they threaten Spain’s territorial integrity over occupied Ceuta.
Europa Press emphasized that the report shows that migrants, specifically those from North Africa, continued to be the main targets of hate speech on social media, accounting for 80% of the content analyzed. The figure is eight percentage points higher than in August.
In general, immigrants were the target of hate speech and discriminatory content in 19% of the cases, followed by Muslims at 14%, as well as women at 8%, people of African descent at 7%, and Latin Americans at 4%
The report shows that “messages portraying certain groups as a threat accounted for 41% of the total analyzed,” while messages calling for the expulsion of targeted groups accounted for 12%.
The Oberaxe data also show that 58% of the content examined “used explicit aggressive language characterized by insults, threats, or derogatory remarks directed at targeted groups.”
While social media highlights the challenges migrants face, reports have also documented physical assaults and mistreatment endured by migrants, including Moroccans, in the occupied city.
An alarming report recently featured transcribed conversations from a recording obtained by Spanish media.
The audio is attributed to a group of soldiers who said they enjoyed themselves while beating migrants, especially when they were not wearing gloves.
The report includes a transcript of a conversation between a group of soldiers on duty during one of their surveillance shifts at a fixed post in the city on September 21-22.
One exchange in the recordings features a uniformed soldier who said he tends to approach migrants who move backward to avoid being assaulted.
“I’m going to try to slap him, and he’ll move backward. And I said, how am I supposed to get closer?… And I tell him, ‘Take that,’” the soldier said, boasting about slapping migrants.
The accounts also feature soldiers sarcastically commenting on the victims’ abuse, with a third soldier alleging that the migrants “seem to ask” to be beaten.
