Spain: massive entry of migrants into the enclave of Melilla
The enclave of Melilla in Spain.
Melillense/wikimedia.org
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Nearly 500 migrants managed this Wednesday to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla, located on the northern coast of Morocco, during the most massive attempt to cross this enclave ever recorded, according to local authorities.
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“
Around 9:30 a.m.
(8:30 a.m. GMT),
a group of some
2,500 people from sub-Saharan Africa attempted a massive crossing of the Melilla border fence
,” the prefecture of Melilla said in a statement, adding that 491 migrants managed to enter the enclave.
"
This is the most important entry attempt
(ever)
recorded
" in Melilla, assured the prefecture.
"
The great violence employed by the migrants
" -- equipped with "
hooks
" to climb the chain-link fence and "
sticks
" and who "
threw stones
" -- enabled them to "
overwhelm the Moroccan security forces who were trying to prevent them from reaching the fence
," she explained.
Thirty injured migrants
For its part, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) reported about thirty injured migrants, three or four of them seriously, who were admitted to the Hassani hospital in Nador, a Moroccan town bordering Melilla.
Others, turned back by the Spanish authorities, were transferred on board buses to keep them away from border posts, according to a video from the NadorCity.com site.
Melilla and the other Spanish enclave of Ceuta
, located almost 400 kilometers further west, constitute the European Union's only land borders in Africa.
They are regularly the subject of crossing attempts by illegal migrants seeking to reach Europe to flee war or poverty after crossing part of Africa to Morocco.
(
With
AFP)
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