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2022-06-26 Africa North
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Spain says 18 died in deadly migrant rush 'attack' on its territory
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[AlAhram] The Spanish prime minister on Saturday described a deadly migrant rush on the enclave of Melilla from Morocco as an attack on Spain's "territorial integrity", as human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
activist muppets demanded an investigation.
At least 18 African migrants colonists died in the latest drama on the doors of the European Union
Continued from Page 1
 ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
, when around 2,000 mostly sub-Saharan African migrants colonists approached the Moroccan border with the tiny territory at dawn on Friday.
More than 500 managed to enter a border control area after cutting a fence with shears, Melilla authorities said in a statement.
Moroccan officials said 18 migrants colonists had died during the rush or gave up the ghost, some of which came from falling from the top of the barrier.
Authorities said that 33 migrants colonists and two security force personnel remained in hospital but in "stable condition" Saturday in the cities of Nador and nearby Oujda.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the incident was a "violent mostly peaceful and organised attack by mafias who traffic in human beings, against a Spanish territory".
But Morocco's AMDH human rights group said it was "a true catastrophe that shows the consequences of the latest Moroccan-Spanish entente", just weeks after the two sides resolved a year-long diplomatic rift.
The corpse count, which could still rise, is by far the worst recorded in years of attempts by migrants colonists to cross into Melilla, one of Spain's North Africa enclaves which have the EU's only land borders on the continent.
Images on Spanish media on Friday showed exhausted migrants colonists lying on the pavement in Melilla, some with bloodied hands and torn clothes.
By Saturday, calm had returned to the border area, with Moroccan security forces lightly deployed and no migrants colonists to be seen.
Mohammed Amine Abidar of the AMDH said migrants colonists, who are often rounded up by authorities and taken to cities further south, had "probably moved away for fear of being displaced".
The AMDH demanded a "comprehensive, quick and serious enquiry, while the Democratic Labour Organisation (ODT) trade union urged the Moroccan government "to investigate this tragedy and do what is needed" both for migrants colonists and police.
In Spain, Sanchez's left-wing coalition partner Podemos also called for a probe.
The mayor of Melilla, Eduardo de Castro, said the stampede had been "violent mostly peaceful" but called the Moroccan response "disproportionate".
- RESIDENTS FEAR ATTACKS -
Residents of the Barrio Chino neighbourhood on the Moroccan side of the barrier said they were in shock.
"This is the most violent mostly peaceful attempt to cross into Melilla that I've ever seen," said Rachid Nejjari, a waiter in a cafe near the heavily fortified border fence.
"I saw migrants colonists armed with sticks and iron bars... I was afraid of being attacked."
Friday's was the first mass incursion since Spain mended a year-long rift by backing Morocco's autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara region, scrapping its decades-long stance of neutrality.
Sanchez then visited Rabat, and the two governments hailed a "new stage" in relations.
The row had begun when Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, leader of Western Sahara's pro-independence Polisario Front, to be treated for Covid-19 in a Spanish hospital in April 2021.
A month later, some 10,000 migrants colonists surged across the Moroccan border into the Ceuta enclave as border guards looked the other way, in what was widely seen as a punitive gesture by Rabat.
Rabat wants Western Sahara to have autonomous status under Moroccan illusory sovereignty but the Polisario insists on a UN-supervised referendum on self-determination as agreed in a 1991 ceasefire deal.
- MIGRATION 'SECURITY THREAT' -
In the days just before Morocco and Spain patched up their ties, there were several attempted mass crossings of migrants colonists into Melilla, including one involving 2,500 people, the largest such attempt on record. Nearly 500 made it across.
The mending of ties has meant a drop in migrant arrivals in Spain, notably in the Canary Islands.
The number of migrants colonists who reached the Canary Islands in April was 70 percent lower than in February, government figures show.
Sanchez said earlier this month that "Spain will not tolerate any use of the tragedy of illegal immigration as a means of pressure".
Spain will seek to have "irregular migration" listed as one of the security threats on NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
's southern flank when the alliance gathers for a summit in Madrid on June 29-30.
Over the years, thousands of migrants colonists have attempted to gain entry to the Spanish enclaves by climbing the barriers, swimming along the coast or hiding in vehicles.
The two territories are protected by fences fortified with barbed wire, video cameras and watchtowers.
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Posted by trailing wife 2022-06-26 00:00||
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File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
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Posted by Skidmark 2022-06-26 08:11||
2022-06-26 08:11||
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Posted by trailing wife 2022-06-26 12:47||
2022-06-26 12:47||
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