Migration: what the CNDH teaches us about the incidents in Nador

This is a new step that has just been taken in the investigation into the tragic incidents that occurred in front of the crossing point between Nador and Mellilia and which caused the death of around twenty migrants and wounded among the forces of the ‘order. The National Human Rights Council (CNDH) has just unveiled the conclusions of its preliminary report following a fact-finding mission on the tragedy.

We know a little more about the tragic incidents that occurred in front of the crossing point between Nador and Mellilia. The National Human Rights Council (CNDH) recently presented its preliminary report following a fact-finding mission on the attempted mass crossing from Nador to Mellilia, mainly through the Barrio Chino crossing point.

In its report, the Information Commission, which verified the number of bodies during its visit to the morgue, confirms the figures of 23 dead migrants and 217 people injured, including 140 among the members of the forces of the order and 77 among migrants. The Council, which says it has taken note, with satisfaction, of the decision to carry out autopsies aimed at determining the circumstances of the deaths, as well as DNA analyzes capable of guaranteeing the rights of the families of the deceased and their inclusion in the files of the trial, returned at length to the circumstances of the deaths.

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“The autopsy remains the only way to accurately verify the causes of death in each case”, underlines the CNDH, specifying that none of the people who died during the attempt to cross the fence were buried.

If the recorded deaths were caused by mechanical asphyxiation on suffocation caused by the jostling and the agglutination of the large number of victims in a hermetically closed space (mass disaster), with movement of crowd in panic, the organization regrets that the commission could not determine whether the origin of the injuries of some migrants he visited were from falls and shoves or injuries resulting from the disproportionate use of force.

However, if we are to believe the conclusions of the fact-finding mission, the clashes, which constitute an unprecedented precedent in terms of attempts to cross the fence separating Nador and Mellilia, were characterized by acute violence, simultaneously perpetrated by a large number of migrants (estimated at 2,000), armed with sticks, stones and sharp weapons.

In the same vein, the commission, which held talks with the authorities and non-governmental associations and met the injured migrants hospitalized, urges the authorities concerned to speed up the necessary procedures to allow full and complete functioning of the African Observatory on Migration, while insisting on the effective implementation of international rules relating to the protection of all migrants.

Khadim Mbaye / ECO Inspirations