Citizens of Morocco have accused the Spanish Consulate General in Nador of wrongfully denying their Schengen visa applications.
The applicants have said that the consulate is refusing their application despite them submitting all the necessary documents.
Calling it a “racist behaviour”, Moroccan citizens who have applied for a Spain Schengen Visa at the Spanish Consulate General in Nador claimed that apart from having their visas refused, they did not get a proper explanation of the reasons behind the decision.
An applicant whose visa application was refused by the Spanish Consulate General in Nador said that he had purchased travel health insurance, booked a place to stay in Spain, and submitted proof of sufficient financial means and other required documents.
Commenting on the decision of the consulate to refuse his application, the applicant said that it was racist and irresponsible. The same highlighted that he will not apply for a Spanish visa again. Instead, he said that he would apply for a visa in another Schengen Member State.
As La Razón explains, another applicant whose visa application was also refused complained of racist behaviour. The applicant, who needs need to enter the city of Melilla from time to time, said that their application was rejected wrongfully.
The same suggested that the consulate needs to have valid reasons for denying the visa, stressing that the visa denial was irresponsible.
According to La Razón, the president of the Greater Rif Association for Human Rights, Said Sharamti, condemned the situation.
Commenting on the matter, Sharamti said that the association will address a letter to the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister and to the African Cooperation and Morrocan Living Abroad to express their concerns.
Moreover, the same said that a letter will also be sent to the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and to the European Union in the hope that measures will be taken and Moroccans applying for a Schengen visa at the Spanish Consulate General in Nador are no longer treated unfairly.
In addition, Sharamti considered such behaviour as a threat to cooperation between the two countries.
Apart from the above-mentioned, the Spanish Consulate General in Nador has faced other criticism too. Just recently, the authorities revealed that four employees are being investigated for providing fake documents to Schengen visa applicants, thus helping them secure a visa in exchange for money.
Of all African countries, citizens of Morocco filed the highest number of Schengen visas in 2022. Data from Schengen Visa Statistics show that Moroccans filed a total of 423,201 Schengen visa applications and spent €33.8 million for these applications in 2022.
However, only just over half of these applications, 57.5 per cent of them, received a positive response.
