E/CN.4/2003/24 page 24 against the wall, then immediately dragged him inside. There, three officers subjected him to racist insults, searched him, accused him of drug trafficking and threatened to halt the procedure for obtaining Spanish nationality that he had begun. Nouredine Hathout was then taken to a police station where, for over an hour, he was denied the right to contact a lawyer and to be taken to a hospital. Later, other officers arrived and he was taken to Carlos Haya clinic, where he underwent a medical examination that revealed contusions and grazing on both sides of the neck. He was then taken back to the police station where he was beaten again. (…) On 26 November 2001, a complaint was lodged with the duty judge of Granada against the officers involved. 15. According to the information received by the Special Rapporteurs, on 22 January 2002 the police launched an attack against immigrants without papers who were demonstrating peacefully in the Alcazaba, the fortress of Almería, in order to obtain residence and work permits. The confrontation resulted in 11 arrests and 20 wounded. The police used tear gas and shot rubber bullets in order to disperse the 300-odd demonstrators. The persons who were arrested were taken to a police station where they were beaten again; they were not allowed access to toilets and received no food or blankets for 48 hours. According to the Government, only two persons were slightly wounded; however, the Red Cross stated that up to 20 persons had suffered from the effects of tear gas, or had been beaten by the police or trampled by other demonstrators fleeing the police charge. Deportation orders had been issued against the illegal immigrants in question, and eight Moroccan nationals were transferred to the detention centre for foreigners in Valencia, where they remained for four days, without medical care, in spite of their pitiable state. 16. The Special Rapporteurs have also received information about the living conditions in a number of holding centres for young immigrants, which are managed by the regional departments of social welfare (consejerías de bienestar social) in Ceuta and Melilla, particularly at the Fort Purísima Concepción centre in Melilla and the San Antonio centre in Ceuta, where overcrowding is said to be extreme.* The Special Rapporteurs have received information concerning the following individual cases. 17. Mohamed Garbagui, age 13, was arrested in the street by a Ceuta police patrol, which took him to the San Antonio centre. There, two supervision officers took him to a punishment cell where they undressed him, struck him with their bare hands and a stick, and slapped him. They did not give him enough to eat, confiscated his pillow and forced him to sleep on the ground. The boy escaped from the centre and, accompanied by a representative of a non-governmental organization, went to a clinic, where he received medical treatment for his wounds. On 29 July 2001, he lodged a complaint with the second examining court of Ceuta. He lodged another complaint with the Ceuta Directorate-General of Police. The Special Rapporteurs would like information on the progress of these proceedings. It would not be the first time that minors in holding centres were subjected to ill-treatment. According to the information received, in 2000 the Ceuta public prosecutor for minors began an inquiry into accusations of sexual violence against at least 12 children in the centre. The Special Rapporteurs would also like to receive additional information concerning this inquiry. * Details concerning allegations relating to the treatment of unaccompanied minor immigrants in Ceuta and Melilla may be consulted in the Secretariat.