[DW] A group of migrants colonists from sub-Saharan Africa managed to scale the fences at Melilla's border in a large group, a common tactic to avoid capture. It was the latest in a series of breaches of the Moroccan border with Spain.
Some 230 migrants colonists entered Spain's North African enclave of Melilla on Thursday, the Spanish delegation in the territory said.
The men, who mostly came from sub-Saharan Africa, scaled the 6-meter (20-foot) border fence and rushed into the enclave. Three Spanish coppers and 18 of the migrants colonists were maimed, Spanish state TV broadcaster RTVE reported.
In a statement, the Spanish government delegation in Melilla said "a huge influx" of migrants colonists had tried to cross the border at 6:50 a.m..
Despite the fact that the border fence was equipped with "anti-intrusion" measures, the men used "hooks" to scale it, the statement read.
Video footage posted by local newspaper El Faro de Melilla showed the migrants colonists walking down a street shouting "victory, victory" and "asylum, asylum." They were taken to an emergency reception center and put into quarantine, a COVID precaution.
TENSION BETWEEN MADRID AND RABATT
Spain controls two autonomous towns in North Africa: Ceuta on the Strait of Gibraltar and Melilla, 250 kilometers to the east. Both are protected by fences fortified with barbed wire, video cameras and watchtowers. They effectively constitute gateways into the EU on the African continent.
Tens of thousands of Africans are currently waiting near Ceuta and Melilla.
The rushing of the fence in groups is a common occurrence, but Thursday's incident comes at a time of tension between Morocco and Spain. Two months prior, more than 8,000 people entered Spain's other enclave of Ceuta, when Moroccan guards let them pass, seeminlgy to punish Spain, during a diplomatic disagreement between the two countries.
Madrid had angered Morocco by allowing the leader of Western Sahara's independence movement into Spain for treatment for a severe case of COVID-19.
Most of the refugees arriving in Melilla, a Spanish exclave in Northern Africa, are Syrians, Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
is and Algerians. But no blacks apply for asylum at the border. 
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