The toll is getting heavier in Melilla. Twenty-three migrants died following the scuffles which broke out during the attempt to force the passage of nearly 2,000 illegal immigrants of African origin Friday in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, in the north of Morocco, according to an updated report published on Saturday evening by Moroccan local authorities.
“Five migrants have died, bringing the death toll to 23,” said a source from the authorities in Nador province, adding that “18 migrants and a member of the police remain under medical supervision”. The previous official toll reported 18 dead.
Falls while climbing borders
On Friday, the Moroccan authorities first reported “thirteen irregular migrants (…) who died in the evening as a result of their serious injuries” and 76 injured, including 13 seriously. The prefecture of Melilla had indicated that 49 Spanish law enforcement officers had been slightly injured, as were 57 migrants to “various degrees”, three of whom had to be taken care of in the hospital. Spanish enclave.
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.
This Friday’s attempt began around 6:40 a.m. when a group of “nearly 2,000 migrants (…) began to approach Melilla”, according to the prefecture. More than 500 of them “from sub-Saharan African countries” then forced the entry of the border post with “shears”, added the prefecture, according to which 133 managed to return. Some have sometimes fallen from great heights while trying to climb the infrastructure at the borders.
Pedro Sanchez denounces the presence of “mafias”
Traveling to Brussels for an EU summit, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez denounced a “violent assault” fomented by “mafias who traffic in human beings”. Omar Naji, of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), assured AFP that “clashes” had taken place overnight from Thursday to Friday between migrants and Moroccan agents, and that injured each side had to be hospitalized in Nador.
It is the first time since the normalization of relations between Madrid and Rabat in mid-March, after a diplomatic quarrel of almost a year, that tensions have again spread to the enclave of Melilla. The crisis between the two countries had been caused by the reception in Spain of the leader of the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, in April 2021, to be treated there for Covid-19.
It culminated in the entry in May 2021 of more than 10,000 migrants in 24 hours in Ceuta, thanks to a relaxation of controls on the Moroccan side. Madrid then denounced an “aggression” on the part of Rabat, which had recalled its ambassador to Spain. Pedro Sanchez put an end to this estrangement by publicly supporting the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony 80% controlled by Rabat but claimed by the Polisario, supported by Algeria.