The Diplomat
The Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, will travel today to Rabat to meet with his Moroccan counterpart, Abdelouafi Laftit, two weeks after the death of at least 23 migrants during the storming of the Melilla fence.
The meeting, which will take place at noon (as reported by the Ministry on its website), will take place a few days after the Commissioner herself spoke before the plenary session of the European Parliament to address the Melilla tragedy. In her speech, Johansson called it “unacceptable that people try to forcefully cross the EU border using violent means” and that “people die in this way at our EU border.”
“I strongly support the calls of the United Nations and the African Union for an investigation into this tragic loss of life,” she proclaimed during the debate, which took place last Monday. “I welcome the fact that, in the meantime, the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation and that, in Morocco, the National Human Rights Commission has launched a fact-finding mission,” she continued.
“We have a very good cooperation with Spain and I am in close contact with the Spanish government,” she assured. Apart from that, she added, “I intend to continue to work with Morocco to discuss the tragic events in Melilla and to further strengthen our global partnership on migration.” “Melilla demonstrated once again that Europe needs the pact on migration and asylum” and that, “in all situations, people must be treated with dignity and respect for fundamental rights,” she warned.
At least 23 people died on June 24 during an assault on the Melilla fence, in circumstances that have not yet been properly clarified. The President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, was harshly criticized for his first reaction to the tragedy, when he stated that the crisis had been “well resolved”, although days later he tried to make amends by assuring that he had not seen the images in which the deceased immigrants were seen piled up.
Since then, there has been a succession of demands for an investigation into the facts, both from the minority partners of the Government (Unidas Podemos), as well as from the opposition and international organizations. Half a hundred European parliamentarians (including the MEP of Unidas Podemos Sira Rego) have demanded the European Commission to open an investigation and “establish responsibilities” for what happened. Among the addressees of the proposal were the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, Ylva Johansson herself and the Commissioner for the Neighborhood, Oliver Varhelyi.
Last Monday, Grande-Marlaska again regretted the death of migrants in Melilla and stated that no democratic country should consent to “violent assaults”. However, he also recalled that in the incidents of June 24, 60 civil guards and 140 Moroccan gendarmes were injured.
