Walter Finch
A SURVIVOR of a deadly 2014 Ceuta beach tragedy has filed a complaint to the UN Committee Against Torture today after he lost an eye to a rubber bullet.
Brice O is demanding answers about Spain’s use of anti-riot equipment that left him partially blind and contributed to 14 deaths after Guardia Civil officers peppered him while he clung on to the inside of an inflated tire.
The former refugee has called for an investigation into why Spanish authorities never properly examined the use of riot control measures during the fatal border crossing attempt just over ten years ago.
“I find it incredibly dangerous that rubber bullets are being used,” said Brice O, who now lives in Canada, where he studies film production.
“I bear witness as someone disabled in one eye because of a rubber bullet.”
The incident occurred when around 200 people attempted to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco on February 6, 2014.
READ MORE: Migrants make another attempt to storm the fences of Spain’s African enclave of Ceuta
Guardia Civil officers fired 145 rubber bullets and five smoke canisters at migrants swimming near Tarajal beach.
While Spain’s then interior minister Jorge Fernández Díaz claimed officers fired ‘at the water, not at people,’ at least 14 people drowned in the chaos.
NGOs believe the actual death toll was higher but, as with so many migrant crossings, there are no registers of people to assess who is missing.
“The last 11 years have been a disgrace and Spain must fully investigate this deadly border operation,” said Hanaa Hakiki, director of border justice at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.
Despite multiple legal attempts, justice has remained elusive.
In 2015, a judge dismissed the case against 16 Guardia Civil officers, and Spain’s supreme court officially shelved the case three years ago.
The complaint comes amid ongoing scrutiny of Spain’s border policies, following another tragic incident in Melilla in 2022 where 37 people died during a mass border crossing attempt.
