The Contentious-Administrative Court number 3 of Palma demolishes the forced confinement to which the Government of the socialist Francina Armengol has decided to subject more than two hundred students affected by a macro outbreak of coronavirus related to end-of-year trips to Mallorca after that the Prosecutor’s Office show its rejection of this decision. The court decision only protects the confinement of infected students who have tested positive for Covid.
According to the resolution, in the case of young people who have tested negative or have not undergone the test, the measure adopted by the Administration is not considered proportionate by limiting a fundamental right.
On the other hand, the judge requires the Balearic Government to inform the court every five days of the evolution in the situation of each of the people affected by the measure, in order to review their status and the need, where appropriate, of its maintenance.
In total there are 249 students who have been isolated at the Palma Bellver hotel for several days. The Government of the Balearic Islands enabled it as a ‘bridge hotel’ for quarantines of positives or close contacts of people who do not have residence on the island.
The Justice of Palma finally agrees with the dozens of parents who had filed a ‘habeas corpus’ before the court on duty for possible illegal detention of their children in the medicalized hotel and that was initially rejected. The Court argued that it was “an income recommended by the health authorities” and that, therefore, it was not “facing an alleged illegal detention.”
The rejection of the Prosecutor’s Office
The final decision of the Justice comes a day after the Prosecutor’s Office also rejected the forced confinement, assuring that the measures of the General Directorate of Public Health “are not fully justified or proportionate.”
The Public Ministry clarified that it is not questioned that the young people have been able to maintain contact with positives, but points out that the resolution of the Ministry considers affected students to be suspicious of contact “in a general, presumptive and indeterminate way.”
“It is strange that contacts with other groups such as workers in hotel or leisure establishments or other clients who enjoyed those hotels or leisure places were not considered suspicious,” argues the prosecutor.
After receiving the report from the Prosecutor’s Office, the court has requested more information from the Government to decide on the measure and has finally decided to overturn the confinement of Armengol.
Almost 250 isolated students
The Balearic Government transferred the 249 young people this weekend to the ‘bridge hotel’ for positives in coronavirus and close contacts Palma Bellver for being related to the macro outbreak that began on a study trip to Mallorca and which has affected more than 1,000 students from all over Spain.
Once at the hotel, the controversy began. Parents and students demanded their freedom and denounced a kidnapping. The authorities subjected them to a PCR test and, so far, of the 249 young people transferred, 64 have tested positive and 185 have tested negative. The latter will be able to return to their families.
