A year after the tragedy of Melilla: A futile search for humanity

A year ago, nearly 2,000 migrants tried to scale meter-high fences in Melilla. Dead and wounded on the border between Spain’s exclave and Morocco.

Melilla in June 2023. It’s quiet on the border with Morocco. The wind whistles. The security zone was deserted. Freelance journalist Javier García Angosto was standing on the hill from which he observed the incident a year ago, which later made headlines as the “Melila tragedy”.

It’s a mix of olive groves and wild scrub that borders and overlooks the deep blue Mediterranean Sea. He points to fences several meters high on the Moroccan side, with deep ditches between them. “If you fall into a ditch, you fall more than two meters,” he explains. This boundary system is impassable. A year ago, Angosto shot action scenes on this mountain. He has them on his cell phone.

The wounded were left untreated on the Spanish side

Moroccan police officers throw large stones at the migrants from above and one person tries to block the stones. A large group, at least 200, entered Spanish soil and were brought back one by one to Morocco. “Look at this boy,” says Garcia Angosto, “how he runs,” moved by the images.

The boy tried to find shelter in the olive trees. in vain Although a Red Cross ambulance was immediately on site, the records show how the wounded endured without treatment on the Spanish side.

One by one they are taken to Morocco

Moroccan authorities on Spanish soil can be seen waiting for a migrant to fall on a rock and catch him, the journalist explains. Repeated repatriation – worried him at the time. And human rights seemed irrelevant.

He saw them being taken to Morocco one by one without recognizing them or asking where they came from. It worried him because it was unclear what was happening to the others at the time. It is now clear that many are in jail and some are still missing. Others remain in the surrounding forests and wait.

On the border of the Spanish exclave in the Kourougo forests surrounding the Moroccan city of Nador, hundreds of migrants await their chance to cross the Melilla border fence. Old mattresses, clothes, big water cans, old bandages are still lying here. A year after the Melilla tragedy, things are quiet in Natur.

Moussa says there are not many migrants and asylum seekers here, either in the jungle or in the city. The Guinean, in his early 30s, washes plates, cups and cutlery in a restaurant kitchen. Although he has asylum papers, it is not easy for black people in Natur. “Everything is forbidden. You can’t even go out. You can only do it at night,” he says. “You have to wait until 8 or 9 at night. You have to hide from the police to buy groceries. Otherwise they will arrest you or take you away.”

Staying is not an option

Moussa has a wife and a young daughter. She will be three in the fall. Because the situation was so difficult for black migrants and asylum seekers in northern Morocco, he sent them away. He says 4500 euros and a speedboat is the way out. Both are now in Spain and are being looked after by aid organisations.

Moussa wonders what to do now. He lived in the forest for two years when a suspected smuggler brought his money. He was arrested in Natur with asylum documents. He didn’t want to stay. “Even if you want to buy groceries, if something really costs one dirham, they will sell it for two dirhams. If you are black, you have to pay more.”

Disaster for human rights

Anyone still living near the border as a migrant or asylum seeker usually knows Osman Ba. He is from Senegal and has lived in Morocco for over a decade. He lived for eleven years in the forests of Kauroko. He tried ten times to come to Europe – without success.

Ousmane Ba talks about how food from the garbage, bread contaminated with urine, made him sick. Today he has a residence permit, works on migration, has his own non-governmental organization in Morocco for immigrants from sub-Saharan countries, is invited to conferences worldwide – his two children speak Moroccan fluently and go to school.

“The EU will say – the work is going well in Nador: no one is in the forest anymore. It’s a disaster for human rights.” According to Ousmane Ba, some of those who stayed had become so vulnerable that they had to hide during the day in forests and tunnels.

Deaths have not been properly processed to date

M’barek Bouirig also observes that the situation of asylum seekers has worsened. The lawyer represented Sudanese asylum seekers who tried to climb the border fence in Melilla a year ago – many of whom are now serving three-year prison terms. “With all due respect to the court, we do not agree with the rulings. We consider the Sudanese who came to Morocco to be refugees under the law because they fled the war. The court of first instance considered that and sentenced them to eleven fines. And eight months. In the second case, the sentences were increased to three years for all.”

For a year there have been complaints that the circumstances surrounding the death in Melilla were not properly handled – by either the Spanish or the Moroccan side. A year after the Melilla tragedy, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International complain that people are still lying in morgues in Morocco – yet to be identified or buried by their families.

Tow tractors create something new business model

According to data from the European border agency Frontex, attempts to reach Europe from Moroccan territory have decreased in recent months. For example the Canary Islands. or terrain. Fewer refugees also attempted to pass through Turkey. But significantly more from Tunisia.

One reason for this, explains Piotr Świtalski from Frontex: smugglers have developed a new business model there. They are now building cheap boats that can be ready on the beaches in 24 hours, he says. These boats can carry 20 to 30 people. But they are not seaworthy.

But now, in the summer, more people will be leaving in other ways as well. Like this week towards the Canary Islands. More than 300 refugees have been rescued, but many remain missing.