Eighteen people died after a massive attempt by a huge crowd of African migrants to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
About 2,000 migrants approached Melilla at dawn on Friday, and more than 500 managed to enter the border control zone after cutting a fence with scissors, according to a statement from the local Spanish government delegation.
Moroccan authorities said late Friday that 13 migrants had died from injuries sustained in the invasion, in addition to five who were confirmed dead earlier in the day.
“Some fell from the top of the barrier separating the two countries,” a Moroccan official said, adding that 140 security officers and 76 migrants were injured during the crossing attempt.
It was the first such massive invasion since Spain and Morocco improved diplomatic relations last month.
The local Spanish government delegation said only 49 Spanish police officers were slightly injured.
Morocco has deployed a “large” force to try to repel the border attack, and they have “actively cooperated” with Spanish security forces, a statement said earlier.
Photos in the Spanish media show exhausted migrants lying on the sidewalk in Melilla, some with bloodied hands and torn clothes.
Speaking in Brussels, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the “violent attack”, which he blamed on “human trafficking mafias”.
Melilla and Ceuta, Spain’s other small North African enclave, have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa, making them a magnet for migrants.
Migrants and security forces “clashed” on the Moroccan side of the border on Thursday night, said Omar Naji of the Moroccan human rights group AMDH. Several of them were hospitalized in Nador, he added.
Migrants climb the fences separating Melilla from Morocco. Photo: Javier Bernardo / AP
In March this year, Spain ended a long-running diplomatic crisis by backing Morocco’s plan for autonomy in Western Sahara, returning to its decade-long position of neutrality.
Sanchez then visited Rabat and the two governments welcomed a “new stage” in relations.
The dispute began when Madrid allowed Brahim Gali, leader of the Polisario Front, which supports the independence of Western Sahara, to be treated for Covid-19 in a Spanish hospital in April 2021.
A month later, about 10,000 migrants stormed the Moroccan border into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta as border guards watched from what was widely seen as a punitive gesture by Rabat.
Rabat called for Western Sahara to have autonomous status under Moroccan sovereignty, but Polisario wanted a referendum on self-determination under UN supervision, as agreed in the 1991 ceasefire agreement.
In the days just before Morocco and Spain patched up their ties, there were several attempts at mass migration of migrants to Melilla, including one involving 2,500 people, the largest of its kind in history. Nearly 500 passed.
Improving relations with Morocco – the starting point for many migrants – means a decline in arrivals, especially in the Atlantic Canary Islands in Spain.
The number of migrants who reached the Canary Islands in April was 70% lower than in February, government figures show.
Sanchez warned earlier this month that “Spain will not tolerate the use of the tragedy of illegal immigration as a means of pressure.”
Spain will seek to point to “illegal migration” as one of the security threats on NATO’s southern flank when the alliance meets at a summit in Madrid on June 29th and 30th.
Over the years, thousands of migrants have tried to cross the 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) border between Melilla and Morocco, or the 8-kilometer Ceuta border, by climbing fences, swimming along the coast or hiding in vehicles.
Both areas are protected by barbed wire fences, video cameras and observation towers.
Migrants sometimes use hooks and sticks to try to climb the border fence and throw stones at police.
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