During his videoconference address to the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament, in the exchange of opinions on the events that took place on 24 June in Nador, Grande-Marlaska called on MEPs to be "responsible" and not to use tragedies such as the recent one in Crotone or those occurring in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic coast "for partisan or sectarian calculations".
"I call on all of us to be able to give a truly European response to the thousands of human beings who look to our Union for a dignified future. We are talking about human beings, whose dreams do not deserve to die converted into empty speeches", stressed Grande-Marlaska at the LIBE Committee.
In the minister's words, migration "is a reality that is here to stay" and it is up to the European Union to decide whether to "engage in demagogy and electioneering" with this phenomenon or to tackle it with "shared management and responsibility between political families and between countries", he said, urging MEPs to "reflect deeply" on the political treatment of the migratory phenomenon.
Grande-Marlaska defended "the positive effects" of legal migration as opposed to "irregular, uncontrolled and insecure" immigration, which, in his opinion, is synonymous with "the worst crime that can be committed against people's rights, human trafficking".
Response "With sensitivity, transparency and cooperation"
The head of the Home Affairs Ministry framed the "tragic events" of 24 June in Nador in this context, "which should never have happened", and he explained to the MEPs the timing of the events and the actions of the State Law Enforcement Forces and Agencies on that day.
"The State Prosecutor concluded that there were no elements that determined that the agents of the State Law Enforcement Forces and Agencies were involved in any criminal offence, neither in their general actions during the development of these nor subsequently at the time of the materialisation of the rejections at the border", the minister specified, citing the Decree signed by he Crown Prosecutor of the State.
The minister also highlighted the Government of Spain's response "with transparency and cooperation" and "sensitivity towards the injured, the deceased and their families".
In this regard, he recalled his two appearances at the plenary session of the Lower House of Parliament, the oral questions answered in both chambers, as well as the visit of the Home Affairs Committee of the Lower House of Parliament to the border perimeter and the eight hours of recordings taken on 24 June by the State Law Enforcement Forces and Agencies being made available.
Grande-Marlaska also stressed the "absolute cooperation" of his department with the two official investigations opened, one by the Ombudsman, that closed on 1 March, and the other by the Crown Prosecutor of the State, which closed on 22 December, the conclusions of which he read out to MEPs.
Non official translation
The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, during his speech at the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament