Torture, Migration, and State Violence In Contemporary Spain

Whilst torture is an age-old phenomenon, prevalent in Western societies since the oldest available records, the 20th Century brought about significant transformations in its conceptualisation. Torture remains the subject of complex and controversial debates, both from academic, political, and legal approaches. Dwelling on the current problematizations of this concept that recognise torture within the logic of its social production, this text explores the connection -and its omission- between state violence and torture against migrants. The chapter examines the case of the Spanish state’s failure to protect migrant victim of torture’s rights, as well as the physical aggression at borders, by which migrants are subjected to different forms of violence by the migration control apparatus.