Sandra, whose name has been changed for this story, is a migrant from Latin America living in Spain. According to her, she was brought to another European country by a human trafficking network and forced into prostitution. She managed to escape to Spain, where she lived without proper documentation. She could have applied for protection as a trafficking victim, but she did not want to recreate before the authorities all the terrible experiences she suffered.

Arrested and abused

Some time later, she was arrested and placed in a migrant detention center to await deportation back to her country, where her life could again be threatened by traffickers. She tried to challenge both the detention and the deportation and apply for protection from the state, but the Spanish authorities denied her appeals without specifying the reasons for the denial (her lawyer appealed to the Constitutional Court, which has not yet ruled on the case).

On the day she was going to be deported, while waiting in the migrant detention center, she cut her arm in order to avoid being sent home. Her clothes were stained with blood. According to her, the police officers handcuffed both her hands and her feet when they saw what she had done. The police officer that was to drive her to the airport then hit her several times and used racist insults against her. He tried to force her to change her clothes, but she refused. She was told by the officer that he would file a criminal report against her. Because of these events, Sandra was able to avoid deportation that day and stay in Spain, and is now trying to regularize her migration status.

1.50 meters and 40 kilos

All of this happened in 2011, and now Sandra faces a criminal charge for assault against authorities and bodily injuries to a police officer, despite being 1.50 meters tall and weighing 40 kilograms. She tried to make a report against the police officer who insulted and hit her, but the detention center provided her with neither the medical reports nor the videos of the security cameras placed in the center, making it impossible for her to substantiate her claim. If she is finally convicted, she could face imprisonment for up to 18 months, and the conviction would make it almost impossible for her to obtain proper authorization to live in Spain.

The decision of the court should be made public on December 11. Regardless of the court's ruling, Sandra’s case highlights some of the most important human rights challenges existing in Spain: rights violations in migrant detention centers; lack of proper identification, leading to an inadequate protection of victims of trafficking; impunity of police officers in cases of abuse (we have seen how police may file complaints against individuals to cover cases where they have, in turn, mistreated individuals); and discrimination faced by ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system.