RABAT/MADRID, (Reuters) – Dozens of migrants were pictured lying by a Moroccan border fence, some bleeding and many apparently lifeless, in video showing the aftermath of an attempted mass crossing into a Spanish enclave on Friday in which at least 23 died.
Moroccan authorities said the disaster occurred after migrants attempted to breach a fence into the Melilla enclave, with some dying in a crush after what authorities called a stampede, and others falling as they climbed. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) local head Omar Naji said its members and sympathisers had shot the footage, which showed large numbers of badly injured people piled together with Moroccan security forces standing over them.
He said migrants had lain injured for hours without medical treatment, leading to a higher death toll.
Some 2,000 migrants had tried to reach Spanish territory by storming the enclave fence before battling border guards for two hours, with about 100 making it across the frontier.
Morocco said 23 migrants had died and scores were injured, but AMDH said the death toll was 29, citing unnamed local medical officials. Reuters has not managed to speak to any of the migrants who tried to cross.
The mass crossing was the first attempted from Morocco into one of Spain’s two North African enclaves since Rabat and Madrid agreed this year to bolster cooperation on border control.
That deal, which ended months of frosty relations, came after Spain backed Morocco’s stance over Western Sahara, a disputed territory that Rabat says is its own, but where an independence movement is fighting for a separate state.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the raid “an attack on the territorial integrity of our country” and blamed it on people traffickers. Scores of Moroccan and Spanish security personnel were also injured.
However, Melilla regional president Eduardo de Castro said the images were difficult to explain and accused Moroccan security forces of a disproportionate response.
A Moroccan official said security personnel had not used undue force.
