The Modesto Bee
BY HAROLD HECKLE
Associated Press
Four sub-Saharan migrants climb over a metallic fence that divides Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla, as a Red Cross worker is on-hand to offer humanitarian assistance, Monday Feb. 17, 2014. A Spanish official says about 200 sub-Saharan migrants stormed a barbed-wire border fence along Spain’s northwest African enclave of Melilla, with about 50 of them making it over. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s office in Melilla said the melee began early Monday. The Spanish city of Melilla lies on the African continent, surrounded by Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea. Migrants hoping to get to Europe camp on the Moroccan side, with several thousand trying each year to enter the city and Spain’s other coastal enclave of Ceuta. JESUS BLASCO DE AVELLANEDA — AP Photo
MADRID — Spain’s Interior Ministry on Friday posted videos online showing police firing rubber bullets as African migrants swam into Spanish territory from Morocco, but denied this action contributed to the drowning of 15 migrants.
The police-produced videos show bullets striking the sea as migrants tried to swim around the fence separating Moroccan territory from Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Feb. 6. Earlier, hundreds had tried to breach border security barriers by land.
Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said police fired the projectiles in front of the migrants, not directly at them. He said all victims had drowned in Moroccan waters.
Spanish officials initially denied that rubber bullets had been fired into the sea. But Diaz told lawmakers Feb. 13 that police fired rubber bullets, blank cartridges and smoke canisters to try to spur the migrants to stay in Morocco. Diaz said despite the police action, 23 migrants did arrive in Ceuta, and he suggested this demonstrated that police had not used excessive force.
Ceuta is one of two Spanish territories surrounded by Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea. Annually, thousands of Africans hoping to reach a better standard of living in Europe camp on Morocco’s north coast and try to cross over onto Spanish soil.
