Months after the Huelva Gate case was revealed, the Spanish government refuses to investigate the alleged complicity of local authorities in Almonte. The decision comes as a group of lawyers accused the Civil Guard of siding with farm owners. The sub-delegate of the Spanish government in Huelva, Manuela Parralo, refused on Monday, 27th of August, to investigate claims, suggesting that authorities in Almonte (Huleva) had allegedly sided with farmworkers when several Moroccan farm workers decided to file complaints against their bosses in strawberry fields. According to an article published, Tuesday, by La Mar de Onuba magazine, Parralo believes that the authorities cannot take into consideration the complaints of the Association of the Administration of Justice Users (Ausaj). The latter said last month that members of the Civil Guard refused to write in their reports that Moroccan farmworkers came to denounce «sexual harassment». According to the association, which is led by lawyers defending some of these women, indicated that the Civil Guard referred to «sexual innuendo» instead. For Parralo, there is no clear evidence, showing that members of the Civil Guard in Almonte were siding with farmworkers, insisting that the prosecutor's office still has to decide on whether the case should be investigated by Spain's Supreme Court. Were they siding with farm owners ? However, for Ausaj, authorities in the town that hosts, Doñana 1998, one of the farmers where Moroccan strawberry pickers worked, were allegedly «collaborating with farm owners», to ensure that some of these women leave the country before denouncing the alleged abuses. Ausaj argues that, in June, many women working for Doñana 1998, decided to file a complaint against the firm, denouncing «sexual harassment». A list containing the full names and passport numbers of the women in question was made. One day later, lawyers were surprised to know that farm owners knew about the list and made sure to expel the women featured in it. For them, the authorities were allegedly «involved in this», as only members of the Civil Guard knew about the above-mentioned list. On the same day, lawyers and SAT representatives went to the Huelva Court of First Instance to denounce what happened. According to them, «employers abducted these workers with the help of the Guardia Civil». For the record, Spain's National Court (Audiencia Nacional), an exceptional high court in the country, might be taking care of the sexual abuse complaints lodged in May by Moroccan farm workers in Huelva, reported Spanish media in August. The decision, currently studied by Spain's high court judge Santiago Pedraz, comes as Ausaj sent a document to the court, denouncing the way local authorities in Huelva treated the cases.
