THE UN has called on the Spanish Government to ensure fundamental rights are respected ahead of the Catalan referendum on Sunday.

Tensions were continuing to rise in Catalonia yesterday just two days before voters go to the polls in an independence referendum which Spain’s national government has dismissed as “illegal”.

But experts from the intergovernmental organisation issued a statement urging the Spanish authorities to respect “those rights that are essential to democratic societies”.

“Regardless of the lawfulness of the referendum, the Spanish authorities have a responsibility to respect those rights that are essential to democratic societies,” the experts said.

“The measures we are witnessing are worrying because they appear to violate fundamental individual rights, cutting off public information and the possibility of debate at a critical moment for Spain’s democracy.”

As tens of thousands of students took to the streets of Barcelona in support of the poll, the north-eastern state’s foreign affairs chief appealed for support from the European Union, while the mayor of Barcelona warned that the rights of Catalan citizens were “under threat”.

Speaking to journalists in Brussels, Catalan Foreign Affairs Minister, Raul Romeva, said EU institutions need to “understand that this is a big issue”. He spoke a day after Catalan president Carles Puigdemont accused the EU of “turning its back” on Catalonia in its conflict with the Madrid government.

Romeva accused the Spanish Government of a “brutal crackdown” on Catalan officials to try to prevent Sunday’s referendum, and said it had “generated an unprecedented level of shock”. He said he did not expect violence, because “it’s not in the Catalan DNA to use violence to solve political problems”.

Barcelona’s mayor Ada Colau, meanwhile, told her counterparts in Europe that the rights of the Catalan citizens were “under threat” after Spain’s actions to stop the referendum.

Colau sent a letter to 30 mayors of major European cities, such as Paris, Rome, London, Brussels, Athens and Lisbon.

She said she was “concerned” about the current situation in Catalonia and the events of recent days, which she described as “unprecedented”.

Colau said: “I am alarmed at the repressive response from the Spanish government to stop the October 1 referendum.”

The current situation was “serious”, she said, and detailed the actions Spain had taken to prevent the poll, including arrests, the closure of websites, massive police deployment, and “intimidations” of school staff.

Colau said she intended to ask the European Commission to open a “mediation space” to look for dialogue between the Spanish and the Catalans. “Europe cannot wash its hands of this threat to fundamental rights and freedoms,” she said.

Writing in the Guardian, she added: “The Catalan question has become Europe’s most serious territorial crisis in recent years.”

Meanwhile, students from Catalonia’s main universities went on strike yesterday, in support of the indyref. Police said more than 16,000 paraded through the streets of Barcelona, while the demonstration organisers claimed the figure was more than 80,000.

Mike Thom, originally from Edinburgh but now living with his family in Catalonia, has told The National about conditions in the Catalan capital as the referendum looms.

“I live in Barcelona with my family and this situation is becoming ridiculous,” he said.

“The Government has now ordered Mossos d’Escuadra [Catalan police] to ‘tape-off’ public schools over the weekend to prevent their use as polling stations.

“Rajoy is attempting to defeat Catalans with Sellotape as well as Guardia Civil and Policia Nacional.”

Spain’s central government is considering sedition charges against people who protested against a police crackdown last week.

Investigative Judge Carmen Lamela said the National Court would investigate if the September 20 demonstration constituted a “tumultuous uprising against police”, which could constitute sedition.

The judge ordered Spain’s paramilitary Civil Guard to provide information. Lamela’s decision followed a complaint by the court’s chief prosecutor that named two civil groups as organisers of the demonstration in Barcelona, outside a building that police had raided.

During the protest two Civil Guard vehicles were allegedly attacked.