Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez says his government will offer “total collaboration” with investigations into the deaths of as many as 37 people who tried to cross into the Spanish enclave of Melilla last Friday.
“I regret the loss of human life and express my solidarity with the families of the migrants who died,” Mr Sánchez told Cadena Ser radio on Wednesday, while confirming three investigations had been opened: by Spain’s public prosecutor, Moroccan prosecutors and the Spanish rights ombudsman.
“We have to trust these institutions and I pledge the government’s total collaboration with their efforts to clarify what happened,” he said. Mr Sánchez had initially praised the Moroccan police — who have been accused of using excessive force — in the aftermath of the deaths.
The dead were among as many as 2,000 people who attempted to cross into Melilla early last Friday. Melilla and another Spanish enclave, Ceuta, are the only land borders between Africa and Europe.
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Moroccan authorities said 23 people died, blaming a “stampede” and people falling from a high fence. Local NGOs put the number as high as 37, saying security forces turned violent and failed to secure treatment for the injured in the hours after they were hurt.
[ Calls for investigation after up to 37 die trying to cross Morocco-Spain borderOpens in new window ]
More than 130 people managed to reach Spain and are being held in reception centres there, with one Sudanese man telling journalists he had tried to cross the Mediterranean Sea three times from Libya to Europe before moving on to Morocco. More than 17,000 people have died or disappeared trying to cross the central Mediterranean Sea since 2014, according to the International Organisation for Migration, while nearly 100,000 have been intercepted since 2017 and forced back to Libya.
United Nations secretary general António Guterres tweeted on Wednesday that he was “shocked by the violence… which resulted in the deaths of dozens of migrants and asylum seekers. The use of excessive force is unacceptable, and the human rights and dignity of people on the move must be prioritised by countries”.
Helena Maleno Garzón, a Spanish activist and journalist who is in regular contact with refugees and migrants trying to reach Spain from north Africa, announced a protest outside Morocco’s parliament in Rabat on Friday.
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said it had analysed photographs showing that at least 10 new graves had been dug in the Sidi Salem cemetery in Nador, a Moroccan town near Melilla, raising concerns that the dead may be buried without being identified or before an investigation. “The preservation of evidence is crucial to ensure a full investigation. To this end, it is vitally important for the Moroccan authorities to make every effort to preserve the bodies in a dignified and appropriate manner to allow for autopsies and verification of cause of death,” the human rights organisation said.
UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet and African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat are among those who have called for an investigation.
