The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has insisted this Saturday on praising and defending the “extraordinary work” of the Spanish and Moroccan Police on Friday in the border perimeter of Melilla despite the high number of deaths and injuries caused by the attempted jump to the fence
Officially there are 18 dead, but four Moroccan humanitarian organizations raise the figure to 29 dead people: 27 migrants and two Moroccan agents, an extreme that Morocco has not yet confirmed.
At the press conference after the Council of Ministers, Sánchez ignored the number of dozens of deaths, of which he made no reference despite remembering that there are “injured civil guards.” Instead, the president has shown his “solidarity” with the State Security Forces and Bodies and has said that the “violent assault, and I want to emphasize that, that it was violent and organized by mafias that are dedicated to trafficking in human beings” it was an “attack on the integrity of Spanish territory.”
The president praised the “coordinated work with the Spanish security forces” of the “Moroccan Gendarmerie” to “repel the attack.”
And thus ended his only reference to Friday’s tragedy: “If there is a single person responsible for everything that has happened on the border, it is the mafias that traffic in human beings.”
Sánchez’s words contrast with the avalanche of criticism of police actions and border control policies from party representatives, humanitarian organizations and Church bodies.
Podemos demands an “immediate and independent” investigation by the European Union to purge responsibilities, given the “harsh images of violence and serious violations of Human Rights by the immigration authorities.”
The International area of the party that shares a government coalition with the PSOE maintains that the moment of this incident “is not accidental” and that it occurs days before the NATO Summit in Madrid, where the southern border and the increase military spending. “The use of Human Rights and people cannot be allowed either as bargaining chips or as a measure of pressure and coercion.”
Podemos estimates that on Friday “one of the most serious humanitarian disasters in history” was visualized on the southern border. And it agrees with other parties and social organizations in that this balance is the consequence of the migratory agreements with governments that “systematically violate Human Rights”, in reference to Morocco.
“Going over International Law by selling, among others, the rights of the Saharawi people and trusting governments that systematically violate human rights has consequences. We have been defending it from the beginning: compliance with international law is and must be non-negotiable”, he emphasizes Can.
Faced with this, Podemos demands a foreign, migratory and cooperation policy “not linked to the externalization of borders”, an expression repeated this Saturday in many groups. “Legal and safe pathways are needed; firmness in the defense of Human Rights; determined fight against corruption and fair development on both sides of the border. The most effective migration policy is the one that goes directly to the causes and avoids humanitarian disasters. like the one lived yesterday”.
Izquierda Unida de Andalucía speaks of “Morocco’s violent and repressive behavior” and says that this “episode of terrible police violence” is the result of a community policy “that puts its relations with the Moroccan dictatorship before the safeguard of Human Rights”.
Also Más Madrid, the Madrid section of Íñigo Errejón’s party, asks that “the Government rectify and not endorse practices against Human Rights.”
For the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR), on Friday there was an “indiscriminate use of violence to control the border” on migrants, many of whom come from Sudan and who “have been prevented from legally accessing the Melilla Asylum Office”. “This is the cost of externalizing borders and putting control in the hands of a country that does not respect human rights.”
One of the most significant reactions is the document signed from Rabat by four humanitarian organizations and entitled: “The murderous immigration agreement between Spain and Morocco.” The Collective of Sub-Saharan Communities in Morocco, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, the Association of Migrants in a Vulnerable Situation and Walking Borders, assure that what happened is a “tragic symbol of the externalization of EU borders with the complicity of Morocco ” and a consequence of the “deadly nature of the cooperation between Spain and Morocco”, a collaboration that “multiplies the habitual violations of Human Rights”.
The text argues that for a year and a half the emigrants in Nador have not had access to health care or drugs, that they have seen their camps looted and burned and their drinking water confiscated. “All of this has caused a spiral of violence on both sides. It is reprehensible whatever the origin, but it is reminiscent of the systemic violence against migrants in Nador.”
The organizations show their condolences to the families of the deceased migrants and agents and call for an independent judicial investigation in both countries and an end to the criminal policies financed by the EU, some states and organizations that outsource criminal policies.”
The Diocese of Malaga is very forceful: “Spain and Morocco have chosen to eliminate human dignity from borders, maintaining at all costs that the arrival of migrants must be avoided and forgetting the lives that are torn apart along the way.” The Church of Malaga affirms that “the authorities cannot evade their responsibility” and that the “lack of safe ways to apply for asylum has caused these deaths, injuries and social alarm”. The secretary general and spokesman for the Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, has taken advantage of a reflection on the repeal of the right to abortion in the US to position himself in the face of this tragedy: “Those of us who defend life and are against the right to abortion cannot remain indifferent to the death of migrants fleeing from hunger, persecution, war or are used as tools of political pressure. Every human life is worthy”.
The president of Melilla, the former deputy for Citizens who governs thanks to the support of the PSOE and the Coalition for Melilla and who now appears as an independent, Eduardo de Castro, told TVE that it is a “violent and dramatic” episode. It is a outrageous. We have a serious problem and we will have to seek a new status for Ceuta and Melilla”. When asked if the Security Forces have sufficient structure, he said that the problem “does not depend on the Security Forces, but on sub-Saharans having a fence. The Civil Guard does what it can and more”.
Vox de Melilla blames Morocco for “deliberately consenting” to what Santiago Abascal’s party calls “invasion” and says that the border must be militarized and closed until Morocco recognizes Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla.
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