Morocco’s main human rights organization called for an investigation on Saturday. The request comes the day after the attempted entry of nearly 2,000 sub-Saharan migrants into the Spanish enclave of Melilla during which 23 people died, a “tragedy“unprecedented in Morocco.”We call for a prompt and transparent investigation“, Mohamed Amine Abidar, the president of the section of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) in Nador, in northern Morocco, told AFP.
The toll should rise
According to a latest report from Moroccan local authorities, 23 irregular migrants were killed on Friday when nearly 2,000 migrants attempted to enter Melilla, yet another migratory tragedy at the gates of the European Union (EU). Thirteen of them seriously injured succumbed to their injuries, a source from the authorities of the province of Nador told AFP on Friday evening.
The victims were found dead”in jostling and falling from the iron fence“which separates the Spanish enclave from Moroccan territory, during”an assault marked by the use of very violent methods by the migrants“, underlined the same source.
This death toll of 23, which is only provisional, is (by far) the deadliest ever recorded during the many attempts by sub-Saharan migrants to enter Melilla and the other Spanish side of Ceuta, which constitute the only borders of the EU with the African continent.
In addition, 140 members of the security forces were injured, five of them seriously.
In addition, 130 migrants managed to enter Melilla from Morocco on Friday. Only one of them remains hospitalized, according to sources from the Spanish prefecture.
Spain accuses Morocco and the “mafias”
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, described the tragedy as a “violent and organized (…) assault by mafias who traffic in human beings, against a city which is Spanish territory“. “Therefore, it was an attack on the territorial integrity of our country“, he added during a press conference in Madrid.
On the Spanish side, Eduardo de Castro, the president of the enclave of Melilla, the highest political authority of this autonomous city, denounced a “disproportionate response“from Morocco to the attempted forced passage of illegal immigrants.
Many testimonies highlighted the violence on both sides during Friday’s events. “It’s the attempt“to enter Melilla”the most violent i have ever seen“, told AFP Rachid Nerjjari, waiter in a cafe located in front of the fence that marks the border in the Moroccan district of Barrio Chino. He assured to have seen “migrants armed with sticks and iron bars, a first in the region“.
The action of the Moroccan security forces to prevent these some 2,000 migrants from entering Melilla also raised many questions.
Calm returned on Saturday to Nador, a city bordering the Spanish enclave, as well as around the high iron fence that separates Moroccan territory from Melilla, according to AFP journalists. There is no trace of migrants in town. According to Mr. Abidar, “they would have moved away for fear of being moved by the Moroccan authorities“, generally towards the south of the country. A witness saw several buses carrying migrants out of Nador.
The situation was also calm on the Spanish side of the Melilla fence, according to footage from public broadcaster TVE, which showed workers repairing the damage to the barrier. “We regret this humanitarian drama, with these images, which come from Morocco. What is happening is truly barbaric“, Mr. de Castro lamented.”These sub-Saharan (migrants) invade a territory in a violent way, it is not the first time, but Morocco must have a certain proportionality“, pleaded the president of Melilla.
Request for an international investigation
The NGO Caminando Fronteras, a specialist in migration between Africa and Spain, demanded in a statement on Saturday “the immediate opening of an independent judicial investigation on the Moroccan and Spanish side, as well as at the international level to shed light on this human tragedy“.
Located on the northern coast of Morocco, Melilla and the other Spanish enclave of Ceuta are the EU’s only land borders on the African continent and are regularly subject to attempted entry by migrants seeking to reach the ‘Europe.
Spanish media had already reported clashes in recent days between illegal immigrants and police in the border area of Melilla.
According to Mr. Abidar, of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, “the main cause of this disaster is the migration policy led by the European Union in cooperation with Morocco“.
This massive entry attempt into one of the two Spanish enclaves is the first since the normalization of relations between Madrid and Rabat in mid-March, after a diplomatic quarrel lasting nearly a year.
Just before the reconciliation between the two countries, Melilla had been the scene in early March of several massive entry attempts, including the largest ever recorded in this enclave with some 2,500 migrants. Nearly 500 had succeeded.