The European Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson, has considered it a priority for an investigation to establish the facts in the death of at least 23 migrants at the Melilla fence, pointing out that it is “unacceptable” so much that people die at the borders of the Union European like these being violently assaulted.
In a debate in the European Parliament focused on the episode experienced on June 24, the Swedish commissioner has indicated that “it is difficult” to know exactly what happened on “Black Friday”, for which she has said that she supports the requests for an investigation of the deaths of the migrants, pointing to the fact that a stampede occurred when thousands of people concentrated in a passageway reserved for legal residents.
“I fear that there may be more victims, many more injured, including a high number of agents who were put under great pressure,” said the head of the EU Interior.
In any case, Johansson has denounced that it is “unacceptable that people force their entry into the EU using violent means” and it is “unacceptable that people die in this way on our borders”.
At the same time, he has once again insisted on the role of the mafias and without going into the specific case of the episode experienced in Melilla, he has pointed out that “99 percent of migrants” use human trafficking networks.
At all times, the Swedish Social Democrat has argued that European migration policy “is not racist” but rather “incomplete”. “We lack a comprehensive asylum and migration policy and it is urgent to adopt the entire package,” she has indicated about the migration pact that the Twenty-seven have been negotiating for years.
The government’s management of the episode in Melilla has drawn criticism from both sides of the parliamentary arc, thus, on the part of the PP, the MEP and former Minister of the Interior, Juan Ignacio Zoido, has denounced the “hypocrisy” of Pedro Sánchez and has denounced that “far to be well resolved”, the management of the border by the Government is a “cumulative of mistakes”.
In this way, he has criticized the “lurches” of the Socialist Executive in immigration policy, going “from the Aquarius call effect and the withdrawal of the concertinas, to the current complacency in the face of the humanitarian disaster.”
For Ciudadanos, the Melilla episode is a “true tragedy” and the “corollary” of Morocco’s border management, which “is a mixture of negligence and incapacity coupled with an indecent political use of the migratory drama as a mechanism to put pressure on Spain and the whole of the EU”.
Thus, the MEP Jordi Cañas has pointed out that the European Parliament must ask for respect for the Human Rights of migrants and the fight against irregular immigration while at the same time upholding the commitments made by Morocco, which receives more than 300 million euros in funds for migration management.
Izaskun Bilbao, from the PNV, has criticized that both Spain and Morocco “crashed” in the police management “on both sides of the borders” and has asked to clarify the facts, purge responsibility, establish reparation measures and guarantee that they are not repeated similar facts.
On the side of United We Can, the IU representative, Sira Rego, has criticized that the institutions and migration policies of the EU “are racist” and has denounced that while the Twenty-seven have shown that refugees escaping from the war can be protected Ukraine, the same is not done with people “fleeing from other horrors”. “EU asylum policies are conditioned by skin color,” she denounced.
While the Anticapitalistas MEP, Miguel Urban, has gone further and has called for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, assuring that the deaths on the border “are a massacre.” “Murders caused by Fortress Europe that are guilty, the Moroccan Government and police, and responsible: the Spanish Government and the criminal European policy of externalizing borders”, he has condemned.
Along the same lines, the Bildu parliamentarian, Pernando Barrena, has criticized the “terrible management” of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez and has denounced that the entrance to the south of the EU is outsourced to a country like Morocco whose respect for Human Rights ” shines by its absence”. “It is time to end the violation of rights. The lives of Africans also matter,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, ERC has been skeptical that all the blame is placed on the mafias and the far-right discourse on migration is adopted. “This case deserves that we wake up once and for all and react and practice a bit of humanity,” said Jordi Solé, while Diana Riba called for an end to “fortress” Europe that criminalizes people fleeing conflict and misery .
On the side of Junts, the former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, has pointed out that the border with Morocco is a recurrent scene of human rights violations and has assured that “there are no excuses” to justify the “crime”, lamenting that there is little interest by the institutions to clarify the matter.
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