Several demonstrations took place in various cities in Spain on Friday evening to protest after the tragedy in Melilla which claimed the lives of at least 23 African migrants who tried to enter the Spanish enclave in Morocco on June 24.
In Barcelona (north west), Malaga (south), Vigo, San Sebastian or La Coruña (north east) or in the very city of Melilla where the tragedy took place, several thousand people gathered to call many collectives who wanted to denounce “migration policies, materialized in police brutality and the militarization of borders”.
International outrage
At least 23 people, many of whom were Sudanese, died, according to Moroccan authorities, when some 2,000 migrants tried to cross the high chain-link fence separating Melilla from the Moroccan border town of Nador (north).
This tragedy, the deadliest ever recorded on the borders between Morocco and Ceuta and Melilla, the EU’s only borders on the African continent, provoked international indignation, and in particular remarks of rare severity from the UN, as well as the opening of three investigations (two in Spain, one in Morocco). But the NGOs claim that the toll is even heavier and mention “at least 37 migrants” killed.
“This country makes me ashamed”
In Madrid, several hundred people took up the slogans of the “Black Lives Matter” movement and chanted slogans such as “No human being is illegal”, “Anti-racists are there” or “European Union, criminal responsible” and held up “Borders kill” signs.
“This country makes me ashamed,” said Carmen Reco, 77, who came after this “injustice which led to the murder of migrants because they were trying to enter Spain”. Renzo Rupay, who works in transport, was shocked by “the images of the border”: “I too am a migrant, arrived with child papers. Not everyone has the opportunity to arrive in Spain legally,” says the 28-year-old, annoyed that Madrid “blanks the blame” on countries like Morocco. “It’s not normal that so many people are dying. We are talking about human lives, of people fleeing the war, and we are killing them at the border,” added Eva Ruiz, a 24-year-old student.
Rabat charges migrants
According to Rabat, the victims perished “in jostling and falling” from the top of the metal gate that separates Morocco from Melilla, during an “assault marked by the use of very violent methods on the part of migrants”.
But images quickly emerged showing “bodies strewn on the ground in pools of blood, members of the Moroccan security forces (…) beating people and members of the Spanish Civil Guard firing tear gas at men clinging to fences”, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW).
