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Storming Europe: the migrants in search of a better life
Hundreds of migrants intent on entering Europe tried to storm a security fence on the Spanish-Moroccan border yesterday in scenes reminiscent of a medieval siege.
Using 270 ladders and sheer force of numbers, about 100 of the mainly sub-Saharan African migrants scaled the 15ft fence around the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
Failed migrants detained after attempting to breach the security fence between Melilla and Morrocco
Eighteen people, including six policemen "forced to deploy riot gear" to hold back the flow of people, were slightly hurt in the incident, a spokesman for the Melilla prefecture said. The would-be immigrants "offered strong resistance", he said.
A dozen suffered slight injuries after falling from makeshift ladders used to try to vault the fence. Spanish police said that all of the immigrants who scaled the fence were detained.
Such mass assaults on this outpost of Europe on the African mainland have become more common, leaving torn clothes on barbed wire, splintered ladders and several dead and dozens of injured in their wake.
Police and Spanish Legion troops have fired rubber bullets on their side of the border while Moroccan security services wielding shotguns and rifles with fixed bayonets on theirs have enraged human rights groups.
This month the Spanish government began to raise the fence to 20ft in an attempt to deter migrants. Their police forces have been playing a game of cat and mouse with the migrants as they patrol between the two tiers of fences fortified with sensor pads, movement detectors and infra-red cameras.
Ceded by the Portuguese in 1580 and claimed by Morocco, the 60,000-strong garrison town of the Spanish foreign legion erected the £24 million fence in 1998.
Spanish police have logged about 12,000 attempts by migrants to reach Melilla this year. The migrants, who have often travelled more than 1,000 miles on foot, live under scraps of plastic in woods near the border. The assault yesterday was the biggest and the best-organised to have been directed at the barrier.
When caught in Morocco they are often marched over the Algerian border. The holding centre of illegal immigrants in Melilla has about 800 people in a building designed to hold 480.
Last week 12 immigrants were injured when a group of 70 tried to cross the double fences using home-made ladders. Two immigrants died when 300 attempted to storm the border fences on Aug 27. A third died in another attempt two weeks later and there are reports of a fourth death.
The charity Médecins Sans Frontières has criticised what it called "the violence" used by the Spanish and Moroccan security forces. Spanish police deny responsibility for the deaths.
LC
Storming Europe: the migrants in search of a better life
Hundreds of migrants intent on entering Europe tried to storm a security fence on the Spanish-Moroccan border yesterday in scenes reminiscent of a medieval siege.
Using 270 ladders and sheer force of numbers, about 100 of the mainly sub-Saharan African migrants scaled the 15ft fence around the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
Failed migrants detained after attempting to breach the security fence between Melilla and Morrocco
Eighteen people, including six policemen "forced to deploy riot gear" to hold back the flow of people, were slightly hurt in the incident, a spokesman for the Melilla prefecture said. The would-be immigrants "offered strong resistance", he said.
A dozen suffered slight injuries after falling from makeshift ladders used to try to vault the fence. Spanish police said that all of the immigrants who scaled the fence were detained.
Such mass assaults on this outpost of Europe on the African mainland have become more common, leaving torn clothes on barbed wire, splintered ladders and several dead and dozens of injured in their wake.
Police and Spanish Legion troops have fired rubber bullets on their side of the border while Moroccan security services wielding shotguns and rifles with fixed bayonets on theirs have enraged human rights groups.
This month the Spanish government began to raise the fence to 20ft in an attempt to deter migrants. Their police forces have been playing a game of cat and mouse with the migrants as they patrol between the two tiers of fences fortified with sensor pads, movement detectors and infra-red cameras.
Ceded by the Portuguese in 1580 and claimed by Morocco, the 60,000-strong garrison town of the Spanish foreign legion erected the £24 million fence in 1998.
Spanish police have logged about 12,000 attempts by migrants to reach Melilla this year. The migrants, who have often travelled more than 1,000 miles on foot, live under scraps of plastic in woods near the border. The assault yesterday was the biggest and the best-organised to have been directed at the barrier.
When caught in Morocco they are often marched over the Algerian border. The holding centre of illegal immigrants in Melilla has about 800 people in a building designed to hold 480.
Last week 12 immigrants were injured when a group of 70 tried to cross the double fences using home-made ladders. Two immigrants died when 300 attempted to storm the border fences on Aug 27. A third died in another attempt two weeks later and there are reports of a fourth death.
The charity Médecins Sans Frontières has criticised what it called "the violence" used by the Spanish and Moroccan security forces. Spanish police deny responsibility for the deaths.
LC
