11 Syrian asylum seekers found abandoned on streets of Madrid with no food or water after being deported from Britain UK authorities said the refugees had applied for asylum in Spain, and treatment of deportees in other countries is not their responsibility LONDON: Britain and the EU have been accused by welfare campaigners of “playing games with the lives of refugees” after a group of Syrians deported from the UK to Madrid were found on the streets of the Spanish capital. The 11 asylum seekers were “confused and distressed” by their ordeal, according to welfare workers who are helping them. The individuals, who had attempted to cross the English Channel to reach the UK, were deported to Madrid on a charter flight on Thursday. However, Spanish authorities refused to accept responsibility for them, according to welfare group SOAS Detainee Support (SDS). One of the men filmed himself and other Syrians arriving in Spain. UK newspaper the Independent reported that in the video the man says, in Arabic: “Look what the UK did to us. They sent us back to Spain and threw us onto the streets. These are the men who have been returned. God help us. Look at us — look at these men who have been left in the street.” Another of the men told SDS: “We stayed outside the airport until the evening. No food, no water, nothing. We were in the street. We were still there into the evening. Nothing changed. How can a human person stay 12, 24 hours in the street with nothing, no food no water? There’s no humanity in that. “We didn’t all sleep in the same place. I was with four people in an abandoned house. We didn’t have beds or mattresses, no furniture, nothing. Five slept in this abandoned house, six on the street. Some people passed by those in the street and laughed and took pictures. “The UK authorities told us the Spanish authorities would sort our stuff out for us in Spain. They said they would treat us well. No one there told us anything.” Britain’s Home Office said the deportation of the Syrians was “carefully worked through between the UK and Spain by mutual agreement,” and that they were removed from the UK because they had already claimed asylum in Spain. In a message posted on Twitter, Home Secretary Priti Patel attempted to justify the deportation of the refugees, saying: “Today we removed people who came here via small boat. They had previously claimed asylum elsewhere and had no legal right to be in the UK. “Removals continue to be frustrated by activist lawyers, but I will not let up until this route is unviable.” Tom Kemp, a spokesman for SDS, told the PA news agency that the Syrians had been abandoned “on the street, near the airport” because there was no one to receive them when they arrived. “They are very confused about what is happening to them and distressed about it,” he said, adding that the migrants are now in the care of welfare groups in Madrid. “When the Home Office say they’re deporting people to functioning asylum systems in Europe, they’re really saying they’ll abandon people on the streets of Madrid,” said Kemp. “The UK and EU governments are playing games with the lives of refugees, and mutual aid groups are struggling to pick up the pieces.” The Home Office said the UK was under no obligation to monitor the treatment of asylum seekers after they are deported to other EU countries, and that any such deportations only happen when the courts deem it safe. “Any suggestion that the Home Office has not complied with our obligations is incorrect,” it added.