Police accused of preventing a report for the disappearance of a migrant on his way to Mallorca.
The organization Caminando Fronteras has regretted that, although it is not a systematic occurrence, it is not the first time that they have encountered obstacles from agents when reporting cases like this.
PalmThe Caminando Fronteras collective has accused the National Police of preventing two women from reporting the disappearance of a relative while trying to reach Mallorca by boat. This was stated by the head of the NGO and human rights defender, Helena Maleno, in a message posted on her X account.
"A family has arrived in Palma from France to file a report for their missing brother, and the police officer at the station has refused to process it. Two women devastated by grief are being denied their rights because the victim is a migrant," she wrote. Maleno explained that the relative of these two women disappeared while traveling to Mallorca aboard a small boat that had departed from the coast of Algeria.
The group has provided support to the two women in an attempt to find their relative and have traveled from France to Palma with the intention of filing a missing person report. However, the relatives of the missing person have told the NGO that an officer prevented them from filing the report, claiming that they should do so in their country of origin.
Despite their insistence, she lamented, they were ultimately unable to report their relative's disappearance. Maleno recalled that it is not necessary to file a report in the country of origin if the disappearance occurred at a border, and that, in fact, this is something the NGO has helped multiple families do.
The human rights defender lamented that, although it is not a systematic occurrence and in many cases they find the security forces willing to collaborate, this is not the first time they have encountered a situation like this. Maleno's message has provoked a reaction, among others, from the MÉS deputy in Congress, Vicenç Vidal, who, addressing the Spanish government delegate in the Balearic Islands, Alfonso Rodríguez, considered these events to be "very serious," given that "the most basic civil rights cannot be denied in this way."
The coordinator of Podemos Baleares, Lucía Muñoz, maintained that "denying a report for the disappearance of a person because they are a migrant is a serious violation of rights." "An immediate response and accountability are urgently needed," he stressed, addressing the state government representative.
