“Nearly 2,000 migrants” began “an approach to Melilla today at 06:40 hours,” reported a spokesman for the prefecture.
Two hours later, “a group of more than 500 sub-Saharan Africans, after breaking the access door of the border control post with shears”, began to enter the city, but finally it was achieved by “130 sub-Saharan migrants. All of them men“, he added.
Initially, the authorities had reported that the group of the attempt was made up of about 400 immigrants.
The delegation emphasized that the jump occurred “despite the extensive device of the Moroccan Forces, which have collaborated actively and in a coordinated manner with the Spanish State Security Forces and Bodies”.
Omar Naji, from the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) explained to AFP that Thursday night there were “clashes between migrants and law enforcement” on the Moroccan side of the borderand the Hassani de Nador Hospital, near Melilla, confirmed that “several” Moroccan police officers were admitted, as well as some emigrants.
The latest attempts at massive penetration in Spain by one of its North African enclaves (Ceuta and Melilla), were at the beginning of March, before the thaw of Spanish-Moroccan relations.
The diplomatic crisis between the two countries broke out after Spain welcomed in April 2021 the head of the Saharawi independence fighters of the Polisario FrontBrahim Ghali, to treat Covid-19 in a hospital in the country.
Morocco claims Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, and the diplomatic crisis ended when Spain abandoned its historical neutrality between the Saharawi independence fighters and Rabat, to support the Moroccan plan for the territory, consisting of giving it autonomy.
This change of position earned him numerous criticisms of the government of the socialist president Pedro Sanchezand several opposition voices they interpreted it as a concession to Rabat to stop the arrival of migrants.
The high point of the Spanish-Moroccan crisis occurred in May 2021, when, taking advantage of the fact that the Moroccan authorities had relaxed controls, some 10,000 immigrants entered Ceuta.
Despite the fact that Madrid and Rabat have mended their relations, the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, warned in June that “Spain will not tolerate the exploitation of the tragedy of irregular immigration as a weapon of pressure.”
The improvement in relations with Morocco, the exit platform for the majority of irregular migrants arriving on Spanish coasts, caused a drop in arrivals.
Thus, the number of emigrants who arrived in April on the coast of the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands, the first month of the return to bilateral normality, was already 70% lower than in February, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
Madrid, which will host the summit of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) next week, June 28-30, will address with its allies the issue of irregular migration as an instrument of pressure between countries, as a “hybrid threat”, not conventional.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares explained this week that Spain’s demand that NATO address threats from its southern flank, during the Madrid summit, should not worry its southern neighbors.
In any case, the normalization of relations between Rabat and Madrid allowed the reopening in May of the border crossings between Morocco and Ceuta and Melilla. The reopening was preceded by a visit by Sánchez to Rabat.
Ceuta and Melilla constitute the only two land borders between the European Union and the African continent, and thousands and thousands of Sub-Saharan emigrants dream of reaching them as the first step towards settling in Europe.
Source: Ambito
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