this Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) it made it 27 people died The jump to Melilla on June 24 is four more than Morocco announced. “Authorities did not count the casualties who lost their lives in other parts of the country as they were transported across the border,” one of those responsible said at a press conference on Wednesday. According to his research, there 64 people still missing and the Spanish police warmly sent back a hundred. They also criticized the fact that many of the jumpers did not receive help or assistance.
“We think the Spaniard’s responsibility is shared: how can we accept that the Spanish police, who saw Moroccan police beating them a few meters away, sent a hundred refugees back to Morocco?” she asked. Omar Naji, member of AMDH Nador chapter. He explained that they could not yet confirm whether some of them had died after being warmly extradited. Moreover He pointed out that Spain used tear gas and rubber bullets against immigrants, causing more victims..
In the report summarizing their investigations, some 1,500 immigrants they advanced from the mountains towards the border without encountering any resistance. It’s about a six kilometer journey past the barracks of the Auxiliary Forces (part of the police). “It was as if the authorities had chosen to wait for them when they arrived at the border of Melilla, where all the forces were mobilized,” they explain. They also state that in the previous days, Moroccan police “did everything possible” to drive these people out of the area. forests where they took refuge.
they explain that strategy“The fact that refugees violently attack them when they reach the fence, not armed with stones or sticks, is undoubtedly the main cause of many deaths, injuries and detainees,” they complain. Another hypothesis they put on the table is that they allowed the migrants to reach the border “out of a desire to show the Spanish partner what the Moroccan side can do and how far it can go to stop the migration flow”. they say. in the report.
border intervention
Around nine in the morning the first immigrants, most of them SudanThey came to the border and tried to open the gate and without causing any tension they jumped over the fence, defended. Within minutes, Moroccan police intervened and “attacked” the migrants with stones and smoke bombs. “It was at the time of the first victims (…), perhaps long before the authorities intervened in the melee due to drowning or stone throwing,” they say.
this AMDH They explained in detail that they were able to document their lives at the border, and they say that the police surrounded them and did not leave the immigrants any escape route. After this initial phase, there were the “most shocking” moments and the “most cruel, inhuman and degrading” behavior. They tell that there is “widespread violence with batons, kicks and throwing stones to various parts of the bodies of those who were lying on the ground, gasping, injured, fainted and exhausted.”
They say that the Moroccan police heaped dozens of people, some of whom were dead and many injured, who, according to their own statements, continued to suffer blows, in an area of 200 square meters at the entrance to this border gate. Kussay Ismail Abdelkader, Mohannad Maamoun Aissa, Abderrahim Abdellatif Ali (Hanine) and Abdelaaziz Yaakoub (Anwar) are the names of the first victims this organization was able to identify.
this Official version of the Morocco 23 people died by drowning or falling from the top of the fence, which they described as “very violent”. According to the National Human Rights Council, a government agency, autopsy He’s at the Nador morgue, but they haven’t given further details for now.
Response from authorities
The first ambulances mobilized at the border took away the bodies of the deceased instead of evacuating the area. seriously woundedthey condemn. Later, the injured were gradually taken to the hospital. The ambulance’s last departure was at nine o’clock at night: “Neither the Moroccans nor the Spaniards provided any assistance to the wounded during this long period of almost nine hours,” they complain.
Also, from four o’clock in the afternoon, Moroccan authorities began forcibly deporting many of the migrants, some of whom were injured, by bus to the interior of the country, more than 800 kilometers away. This organization was able to document the death of at least one immigrant in these countries. return buses. They point out that there was a young Sudanese named Abdenacer Mohamed Ahmed, who died at night after being injured in one of these buses.