Spain-Morocco, the massacre of migrants at the Barrio chino crossing: the police of the two countries shot and clubbed at least 37 people

ROME – Repression, violence, death: this is the response of the security forces of Spain and Morocco to the hopes of migrants. For those who dream of an acceptable future in Europe, the land route has proved to be as dangerous as the Atlantic one.

On June 24, 2022. That morning, on the border between Spain and Morocco, in Melilla, there was one of the most serious accidents in recent years. That day – complaint Amnesty International – between 1,500 and 2,000 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa with a strong presence of Sudanese, have attempted to cross the border. But as they approached the informal crossing of Barrio Chino, more than a hundred Spanish and Moroccan policemen greeted them with rubber bullets, tear gas, stones and batons. Police continued to beat even when many of the injured were on the ground, semi-conscious and with difficulty breathing. All were denied the possibility of receiving medical assistance.

Repression in a confined space: there was no escape. “We were surrounded, the Spanish and Moroccan police threw everything at us: gas bombs, rubber bullets, stones… you couldn’t see anything and it was difficult to breathe,” said Zacharias, a 22-year-old boy who left from Chad. After having crossed eight countries and failed to obtain protection in any of them, the young man had tried to enter Europe that morning of June 24 and found himself involved in the repression of the police forces. The police intervened in a confined space, from which people could not escape and this reveals the punitive intention of the action. Today, six months later, thirty-seven people are reported dead and seventy-seven missing.

The inertia of Spain and Morocco. Although six months have passed and Amnesty International shared with the Spanish and Moroccan authorities the results of the investigation into what happened on June 24, neither Spain nor Morocco has launched any investigation to clarify the violence used by the police. “This is a cover-up – writes Agnès Callamard, general secretary of Amnesty – yet it would be essential that the governments of both countries guarantee truth and justice about what happened that day, to prevent it from happening again. The investigation conducted in recent months by the organization, thanks also to satellite footage, videos and eyewitnesses, demonstrates that the arrivals of migrants that day were predictable and therefore the violence avoidable. In the days prior to June 24, people arriving in Melilla had already been attacked by the Moroccan police, who had destroyed and burned all their possessions. “The authorities of Spain and Morocco continue to deny any responsibility for the carnage in Melilla. There is a mountain of serious evidence and multiple human rights violations, including deaths, ill-treatment of refugees and migrants, and to date also the lack of information on the identity of the deceased and the missing,” concludes Agnès Callamard.

11 bodies found on Tan Tan beach. At least forty-nine people died last December 10 in Tan Tan on the coast of Morocco, two hundred kilometers from the Canary Islands. The complaint comes from the Non Governmental Organization Walking Fronteras. So far, eleven bodies have been found on Tan Tan beach, the rest are still missing. Just as another boat with fifty-six people on board, including many children, also directed towards the Canary Islands, is missing. The Spanish authorities last week instead confirmed the recovery of the bodies of three people and the securing of another six, all departed from Algeria and shipwrecked off the coast of Murcia, in southern Spain. According to the data of Missing Migrant Project of theInternational Organization for Migration (IOM), since 2014 more than two thousand people have died in the western Mediterranean and the vast majority of accidents have occurred in the stretch of sea towards the Canary Islands.