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Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Spain Blames 'Traffickers' for Violent Melilla Raid


Sat 25 Jun 2022 | 11:41 PM
Israa Farhan

Spain's Prime Minister blamed "mafia" people traffickers for the tragedy that occurred in the enclave of Melilla, which left 18 migrants dead from sub-Saharan Africa.

At a press conference in Madrid, Sanchez said, "If there is a party responsible for everything that happened on the border, it is the mafias that traffic in human beings," expressing his condemnation of the "attack on the territorial integrity" of Spain.

The latest report issued by the Moroccan authorities stated that 18 illegal migrants were killed on Friday when about 2,000 migrants tried to enter the enclave of Melilla in northern Morocco.

Melilla authorities said in a statement that more than 500 managed to enter a border control area after the fence was cut with shears.

Moroccan officials said, on Friday evening, that 13 migrants died of injuries sustained in the incursion, in addition to the death of five earlier today.

A Moroccan official said that "some of them fell from the top of the barrier" separating the two sides.

Pictures published by Spanish media on Friday showed exhausted migrants lying on the sidewalk in Melilla, some of them covered in blood and torn clothes.