This massive attempt to enter one of the two Spanish enclaves located on the northern coast of Morocco is the first since the normalization of relations in mid-March between Madrid and Rabat after nearly a year of diplomatic estrangement.
Nearly 2,000 migrants tried to enter Melilla in Spain this Friday morning, June 24, 2022, from Morocco and 130 succeeded, the prefecture of the Spanish enclave told AFP, in a new assessment of this first massive entry since the normalization of relations between Madrid and Rabat.
Injured people
Spanish law enforcement spotted around 6:40 am, a group of migrants formed by more than “nearly 2,000 migrants” approaching the border and, “130 people from sub-Saharan African countries” entered on Spanish territory, said a spokesman for the prefecture, while a little earlier the authorities had spoken of an attempt to enter 400 migrants without communicating a figure on the number of people who actually arrived in Melilla.
Located on the northern coast of Morocco, Melilla and the other Spanish enclave of Ceuta are the European Union’s only land borders on the African continent and are regularly subject to attempted entry by migrants seeking to reach Europe.
In addition, “clashes took place during the night from Thursday to Friday between migrants and the police,” Omar Naji of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) told AFP, information that could not be confirmed at this stage by the Moroccan authorities.
Contacted by AFP, the Hassani hospital in Nador, not far from Melilla, for its part confirmed having received “several” law enforcement officers on Friday morning, as well as injured migrants of sub-Saharan origin.
First massive entry attempt since the normalization of relations between Madrid and Rabat
This attempt to massively enter one of the two enclaves is the first since the normalization in mid-March of relations between Madrid and Rabat after a diplomatic quarrel lasting nearly a year. It had been provoked by the reception in Spain of the leader of the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, in April 2021 to be treated there for Covid-19.
Madrid put an end to this crisis by publicly supporting the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony 80% controlled by Rabat but claimed by the Polisario, supported by Algeria.
In early April, King Mohammed VI received the head of the Spanish government Pedro Sanchez in Rabat to seal this reconciliation during an “iftar”, the breaking of the Ramadan fast, offered in his honor. A mark of the importance of his visit in the eyes of Moroccans.
The crisis between the two countries had culminated in the entry in May 2021 of more than 10,000 migrants in 24 hours in Ceuta, thanks to a relaxation of border controls on the Moroccan side.
Madrid then denounced “blackmail” and “aggression” on the part of Rabat, which for its part had recalled its ambassador to Spain, who only returned there on March 20.
Just before the reconciliation between the two countries, Melilla had been on the scene in early March of several massive entry attempts, including the largest ever recorded in this enclave with some 2,500 migrants. Nearly 500 had succeeded.
