An information commission mandated by the National Human Rights Council (CNDH) inspected the scene of the tragic events on the border between Nador and Melilla that occurred on Friday June 24, when nearly 2,000 men launched an assault against the forces of the order and the border of Melilla to forcefully enter Spanish territory.
The commission is made up of 5 members of the CNDH, namely Mohamed Amarti, coordinator of the mission and president of CRDH Oriental, Mohamed Charef, president of CRDH Souss-Massa, Abderrafie Hamdi, director of monitoring and protection of Human Rights at the CNDH, Dr. Adil Sehimi, doctor and member of the CRDH for the Oriental Region, and Malika Daoudi, also a member of the Oriental Regional Commission.
It was set up to carry out a “reconnaissance mission” at the border fence between Melilla and the surroundings of Nador, to better understand the events that led to the death of around twenty sub-Saharan migrants, mostly Sudanese and South -Sudanese.
In fact, 23 people were killed in the jostling and clashes between migrants who were trying to force their way into the city of Melilla. As many as 76 others were injured, while more than 140 Moroccan law enforcement personnel deployed to prevent the assault on Melilla were injured by the migrants.
The latter were organized, and armed with sharp weapons, and according to several official and Moroccan sources, including the Moroccan embassy in Madrid as well as the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, these groups of migrants were part of a gang. organized, a mafia whose practices are similar to those of militias.
Footage at the end of the assault on the iron fence described by the Spanish Civil Guard as an “extremely violent operation” showed several piles of bladed weapons, sticks, machetes and other sharp tools, used by the group of migrants who were prepared to face the Moroccan or Spanish police, ready to take their lives to force their passage to Spain.
The delegation which carries out a reconnaissance mission in the city of Nador and its surroundings, leads this tour “following the tragic and violent events, after the attempts of hundreds of migrants to cross the fence, resulting in the death of 23 people, the injury of 76 of the migrants and 140 of the elements of the Moroccan forces, according to the latest data available,” the CNDH said in a statement.
The commissioned experts have already visited the morgue to ensure that the bodies of the victims have not been buried as some parties have made believe.
They then went to the hospitals in the region, including that of the city of Oujda, to see the condition of the wounded and then headed to the scene of the assault to better understand the situation there, and how the operation took place and under what conditions.
“We must put ourselves in the place of the Spanish security forces (…) and the Moroccan public forces”, which suffered serious damage following this violent attack, underlined the President of the Spanish government Pedro Sanchez, recalling that in the last 12 months, “at least eight violent attacks have been orchestrated by mafias at the metal fence in Nador, with armed people, using hooks, sticks, knives and axes”.
“Morocco, as a country of transit, suffers from the problem of illegal migration, and we must help it manage the human trafficking mafias and control migration flows”, which it finds itself facing alone, said Sanchez, who was a guest on the show “Hoy por Hoy” on radio “Cadena Ser”.
If several sources on the spot and official concluded that the group of migrants was organized like militias, several questions remain unanswered, in particular where did they come from? Why are they all of the same nationality? what was their motivation? And how did they get these weapons and other tools?
A certain thesis raised by the Spanish press but also by Morocco, indicates that the group would have entered by the Algerian border. This thesis stands, given that never in the history of migration in Morocco, an operation of illegal entry was made with so much violence and so much armed organization among migrants.
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