For over a decade, Spanish police have prevented asylum-seekers in Ceuta and Melilla—two Spanish exclaves in Northern Africa—from moving to mainland Spain. Since 2020, similar measures have been taken in the Canary Islands. However, this practice has not taken place in a vacuum. This article shows that the Spanish authorities have long drafted and interpreted Spanish law in such a way as to create a veil of legality over these residence restrictions. Moreover, they have ignored attempts by the courts to uphold the freedom of asylum-seekers to choose their place of residence within the borders of the State. The government and the police have thus exercised a kind of “diluted” legal social control, in which legal certainty and human rights safeguards are out of the picture. This article analyzes the issue from different perspectives, using social control theories, classical legal doctrinal analysis, and comparisons with criminal law.
AIDA (2023) Country Report: Spain. Brussels: European Council on Refugees and Exiles.
2.
BarberoI (2021) Los centros de atención temporal de extranjeros como nuevo modelo de control migratorio: situación actual, (des)regulación jurídica y mecanismos de control de derechos y garantías. Derechos y Libertades45(II): 267–302.
3.
BlackD (1984) Social control as a dependent variable. In BlackD (ed) Toward a General Theory of Social Control. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, vol. 1.
4.
BlevinsKR (2019) Crime Prevention. In: DeflemM (ed) The Handbook of Social Control. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 181–193.
5.
BočekT (2018) Report of the Fact-Finding Mission by Ambassador Tomáš Boček, Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees, to Spain, 18–24 March. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Information Documents SG/Inf(2018)25.
6.
BondaniniF (2017) Migration on the borders of Europe: The case of Melilla. In: PelicanMSteinbergerS (eds) Melilla: Perspectives on a Border Town. Cologne: Cologne Working Papers in Cultural and Social Anthropology No. 6, pp. 71–78.
7.
CEAR (2018) Refugees and Migrants in Spain: The Invisible Walls Beyond the Southern Border. Madrid: Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado.
CEAR (2020) Informe 2020: Las personas refugiadas en España y Europa. Madrid: Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado.
10.
ChrissJJ (2019) Social control: History of the concept. In: DeflemM (ed) The Handbook of Social Control. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 7–22.
11.
Churruca MuguruzaCMassoud AhmadiAMorrisC, et al. (2020) Melilla in Limbo: Restrictions on the Freedom of Movement Of Migrants and Asylum Seekers. Bilbao: Instituto de Derechos Humanos de Deusto.
12.
CohenAK (1966) Deviance and Social Control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
13.
CohenS (1985) Visions of Social Control: Crime, Punishment and Classification. Cambridge: Polity Press.
14.
Congreso de los Diputados (1978) Diario de sesiones del Congreso de los Diputados núm. 70. Comisión de Asuntos Constitucionales y Libertades Públicas, sesión núm. 9, 19th of May 1978, pp. 2530–2533.
15.
ECRE (2021) Reception, Detention and Restriction of Movement at EU External Borders. Brussels: Heinrich Böll Stiftung European Union.
16.
Ferrer-GallardoXGabrielliL (2018) Los limbos fronterizos de Ceuta y Melilla: Excepcionalidad y Resistencias. In: Ferrer-GallardoXGabrielliL (eds) Estados de excepción en la excepción del Estado. Ceuta y Melilla. Barcelona: Icaria, pp. 25–44.
17.
Ferrer-GarradoXAlbet-MasA (2016) EU-Limboscapes: ceuta and the proliferation of migrant detention spaces across the European Union. European Urban and Regional Studies23(3): 527–530.
18.
Gammeltoft-HansenTHathawayJC (2015) Non-refoulement in a world of cooperative deterrence. Columbia Journal of Transnational Law53: 235–284.
19.
García VitoriaI (2018) Una década sin Reglamento de asilo en España: obstáculos e interpretaciones divergentes. Anuario CIDOB de la Inmigración2018: 116–128.
20.
Gil-BazoMT (1998) The role of Spain as a gateway to the schengen area: changes in the asylum law and their implications for human rights. International Journal of Refugee Law10(1–2): 214–229.
21.
JohnsenSFitzpatrickSWattsB (2018) Homelessness and social control: a typology. Housing Studies33(7): 1106–1126.
22.
JohnsonCJonesR (2018) The biopolitics and geopolitics of border enforcement in Melilla. Territory, Politics, Governance6(1): 61–80.
23.
KatunaBSilfen-GlasbergD (2014) Rules vs. Rights? Social control, dignity, and the right to housing in the shelter system. Societies Without Borders9(1): 25–47.
24.
Leal MedinaJ (2008) Un estudio de las actuales medidas de seguridad y los interrogantes que plantean en la moderna dogmática del derecho penal. Madrid: Aranzadi.
25.
LeroyI (2024) Migrant Reception Centres: Regulation by Legal Uncertainty?. Social & Legal Studies
26.
MapleN (2016) Rights at Risk: A Thematic Investigation into How States Restrict the Freedom of Movement of Refugees on the African Continent. Geneva: UNHCR.
27.
Marco FranciaMP (2021) La medida de seguridad de libertad vigilada para sujetos imputables. Su implementación práctica a través de 30 casos. Madrid: Reus.
28.
MillerTA (2003) Citizenship and severity: recent immigration reforms and the new penology. Georgetown Immigration Law Journal17: 611–666.
29.
MitsilegasV (2015) The Criminalisation of Migration in Europe. Challenges for Human Rights and the Rule of Law. New York: Springer.
30.
Nistal BurónJ (2020) La libertad vigilada post-penitenciaria. De la teoría de su imposición a la práctica de su incumplimiento. La Ley Penal142: 1–8.
31.
Otero GonzálezP (2015) La libertad vigilada aplicada a ¿imputables?: presente y futuro. Madrid: Dykinson.
32.
Pallister-WilkinsP (2017) The tensions of the Ceuta and Melilla border fences. In: GaibazziPDünnwaldSBellagambaA (eds) Eurafrican Borders and Migration Management: Political Cultures, Contested Spaces, and Ordinary Lives. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 63–81.
33.
ParsonsT (1951) The Social System. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
34.
ParsonsT (1962) The law and social control. In: EvanWM (eds) Law and Sociology: Exploratory essays. New York: Free Press.
35.
PoundR (1942) Social Control Through Law. New Haven: Yale University Press.
36.
RossEA (1901) Social Control: A Survey of the Foundations of Order. New York: Macmillan.
37.
Ruiz RobledoA (2018) Constitutional Law in Spain. Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International BV.
38.
SandersR (2018) Plausible Legality. Legal Culture and Political Imperative in the Global War on Terror. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
39.
Sanz MoránAJ (2010) Reflexiones en torno a la idea de libertad vigilada. In: Arangüena FanetoC (dir) Espacio europeo de libertad, seguridad y justicia: últimos avances en cooperación judicial penal. Valladolid: Lex Nova.
40.
SJM (2018) Sacar del Laberinto: Informe Frontera Sur. Madrid: Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes.
41.
SlingenbergL (2022) European case law on migrants’ social and mobility rights: the need for a comparative approach in assessing ‘human rights overreach’. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights1(20): 1–20.
42.
SpaldingA (2022) The Treatment of Immigrants in the European Court of Human Rights. Moving Beyond Criminalisation. London: Hart.
43.
Spanish Ombudsman (2021) Migration on the Canary Islands. Madrid: Defensor del Pueblo.
44.
TimasheffNA (1940) Law in Pareto’s sociology. American Journal of Sociology44: 206–221.
45.
TreviñoAJ (2019) Law as Social Control. In: DeflemM (ed) The Handbook of Social Control. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 36–49.
46.
WeberM (1968 [1920]) Economy and Society (RothG.WittichC., eds). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
47.
ZiebritzkiC (2018) Implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement: EU Hotspots and Restriction of Asylum Seekers’ Freedom of Movement. EU Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy Blog.
