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| - A leading Spanish rights activist said Monday she had been "violently deported" from Morocco where she lives, accusing the Moroccan and Spanish authorities of harassment and endangering her life. Helena Maleno, who set up Caminando Fronteras, an NGO that offers a lifeline to migrants stranded at sea, said she was refused entry to her home for nearly 20 years and deported. "On January 23, I was deported and violently expelled," said Maleno, 50, an investigative journalist and expert in migration and human trafficking. She had flown into Tangiers, but was refused entry and put on a plane to Barcelona, separating her from her 14-year-old daughter, she told a news conference in Madrid. "The police were waiting for me at Tangiers airport... I didn't know what was happening and it was a very distressing time," she told reporters. Her papers and possessions were confiscated, she was refused water, not allowed medication and silenced when she tried to speak in treatment she described as "humiliating". Worst of all, her daughter had been left in Morocco "and there were indications she too was at risk," she said breaking down while relating how they were separated for 32 days. Spain's interior ministry was "aware of the deportation", she said, thanking the foreign ministry for working to ensure she was eventually reunited with her daughter. Contacted by AFP, the interior ministry said it was "neither aware of nor involved in any way with the events" Maleno described. There was no immediate response from the Rabat authorities. Maleno began helping migrants years ago by acting as a go-between, flagging those in trouble at sea to the naval authorities -- work which continues to be the focus of Caminando Fronteras. More recently, she has been investigated in both Spain and Morocco on charges of aiding illegal immigration and human trafficking, prompting an outpouring of support from rights groups, politicians and celebrities, such as Hollywood actor Javier Bardem. A Moroccan court dropped a case against her two years ago, shortly after similar charges were dismissed in Spain, although the harassment has not stopped. "Since April 2020 I and my family have suffered 37 attacks and I hold the Spanish and the Moroccan government responsible," Maleno said, indicating she had suffered death threats, assaults and had her home broken into three times. "The Spanish interior ministry, specifically the UCRIF (police unit), in collaboration with the Moroccan police, are responsible for this harassment which has put my life and my daughter's in danger these past months... I demand the Spanish and Moroccan governments stop this persecution of me and my family," she said. Although Morocco closed the criminal case in 2019, Maleno continued to suffer surveillance, physical attacks, arrests, had her home raided and suffered from gender-based defamation, Dublin-based NGO Front Line Defenders said. "Helena's case has unfortunately been a textbook example of what can happen to anyone defending rights at the borders of the European Union... despite the fact that courts in both countries have recognised her work is not a crime," said FLD's Maria San Martin. In a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, NGOs and civil rights groups demanded public recognition of Maleno's work as a human rights defender and "an end to efforts to portray her as a criminal" with the text signed by the International Federation for Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture, Front Line Defenders and Oxfam among others. Last year, more than 23,000 migrants reached Spain's Canary Islands, a figure eight times higher than in 2019. But the first three months of this year have already seen twice as many arrive as in the same period of 2020. The Atlantic route is notoriously dangerous. According to Caminando Fronteras, at least 1,851 people died on the route last year. hmw/mg/bp
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