In a mass onslaught on the Spanish North Africa exclave Melilla, a migrant was killed. About 300 Africans had tried on Sunday from Morocco to overcome the approximately six-meter-high border fences, said the representation of the Spanish government in Melilla. Around 200 had been able to reach EU territory.
The refugee died of cardiac arrest, despite being treated by the emergency services, the Spanish authorities said. In addition, several migrants were injured.
The mass storm reportedly involved young men from sub-Saharan Africa around nine o'clock in the morning. Those who succeeded in overcoming the border fences were immediately taken to the reception center (CETI). They had cheered and among other things, "bossa, bossa, bossa" (victory, victory, victory) chanted, reported the newspaper "El Mundo".
Last mass storm in July
Only on Saturday, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska had met his Moroccan counterpart Abdelouafi Laftit in Madrid to speak "above all about migration pressure". Spain and the EU want to improve cooperation with Morocco in order to achieve "legal and orderly immigration", as the Ministry of the Interior emphasized. Madrid and Morocco bet on a "cooperation of equal to the same."
One of the last successful mass storms had occurred in July in the second North African exclave of Spain, Ceuta. At that time, more than 600 migrants had reached Spanish territory. A police spokesman said the migrants were "brutal as never before" proceeded. They would have attacked the border officials, among others, with homemade flamethrowers.
Spain has two exclaves in North Africa, both of which are claimed by Morocco: Ceuta on the Strait of Gibraltar and Melilla 250 kilometers to the east. Near the two areas, tens of thousands of suffering Africans, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, are waiting for an opportunity to enter the EU.
Since the beginning of the year more than 6,000 migrants have fled to Melilla and to nearby Ceuta. More than 40,000 refugees reached the south coast of Spain via the Mediterranean Sea. The vast majority, according to UN figures, come from Guinea, Mali and Morocco.