The Diplomat
Moroccan security forces collaborated yesterday with Spanish authorities to prevent the massive entry of a group of 400 migrants through the fence of Melilla.
As reported by a spokesman for the Government Delegation in Melilla to the Europa Press agency, the double fence that separates the Autonomous City from Morocco suffered yesterday morning “a high pressure on the border perimeter” by the presence of a group of 400 sub-Saharans who had divided into three groups “to storm the fence at the same time at different points in the northern area.”
“The anti-intrusion device coordinated by the Civil Guard, as well as the collaboration of the Moroccan security forces has thwarted the entry,” he continued. “Despite the violence wielded by the migrants, with the throwing of stones and other targets against the Civil Guard, no agent has been injured,” he added.
Melilla has suffered several avalanches throughout this summer and, in all cases, the Moroccan security forces collaborated with the Spanish ones to prevent the massive entry of immigrants, as happened last August 28, when the irregular entry of 350 sub-Saharan migrants through the Beni-Enzar border was thwarted.
Morocco’s collaboration contrasts with the passivity shown by Moroccan security forces at the end of May, during the massive and uncontrolled entry of 8,000 sub-Saharan migrants into Ceuta, in the context of the serious diplomatic crisis between Madrid and Rabat as a result of the irregular entry into Spain, a month earlier, of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali. The tension has been slightly defused recently, especially after King Mohamed VI publicly announced the beginning of a reconciliation process with Spain. The Spanish and Moroccan Foreign Ministers, Jose Manuel Albares and Nasser Bourita, held last Tuesday their first conversation since the outbreak of the crisis.
