Untraceable: Border practices and enforced disappearance in Morocco

The document “Untraceable: Border practices and enforced disappearance in Morocco” (2025) is a comprehensive research report examining the patterns of detention, deportation, and disappearance affecting migrants in Morocco, resulting from a collaboration between the Association of Legal Studies on Immigration (ASGI) and the SOLROUTES research project of the University of Genoa. The report analyzes how migration control policies in Morocco, often implemented in cooperation with European countries (particularly Spain), create conditions for enforced disappearances and human rights violations. It presents findings from field research conducted in October-November 2024, including interviews with civil society actors and migrants.

Key findings include:

1. Moroccan authorities systematically detain and internally deport sub-Saharan migrants from border areas and urban centers, affecting even those with legal status or UNHCR protection.

2. These practices often constitute enforced disappearances, as migrants are detained without formal procedures, deprived of communication means, and transported to remote areas without notification to families or legal representatives.

3. Two emblematic cases are highlighted: the “Melilla massacre” of June 2022, where at least 23 people died and 77 were injured during a border crossing attempt, with 77 people still missing; and the events in Ceuta in September 2024, which resulted in numerous arrests, injuries, and disappearances.

4. These practices violate multiple human rights: the right to liberty and security, prohibition of collective expulsions, prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment, right to life, and right to truth.

The study reports that Morocco’s detention and deportation policies creates conditions of “legal violence” that render migrants vulnerable to systematic rights violations, including enforced disappearances.

Read the report in Italian, or English