Moroccan judicial authorities have decided to prosecute 65 migrants, mostly Sudanese, for participating in the deadly attempt to force their way into the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco last Friday.
The prosecutor’s office of the court of the first instance in the Moroccan city of Nador, bordering Melilla, charged 37 migrants with “illegal entry into Moroccan soil,” “violence against law enforcement officers,” armed gathering” and “refusal to comply,” according to AFP.
Citing the migrants’ lawyer Khalid Ameza, AFP reports that the second group of 28 migrants will also be tried for “participation in a criminal gang to organize and facilitate illegal immigration abroad.”
The lawyer told AFP that the majority of defendants are from Darfur, in western Sudan, while others are Chadian and Malian, and one is Yemeni.
The defense requested parole for all of the defendants, but the prosecutor’s office rejected the request “given the seriousness of the charges against them,” the lawyer explained to AFP.
The migrants attempted to reach European soil, in the midst of significant violence back home, and a worsening food crisis in their home countries.
Nearly 2,000 migrants tried to enter by force on Friday morning the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Nador, resulting in nearly 30 migrants’ deaths, while 140 Moroccan police officers were injured, according to local authorities.
Moroccan authorities say that the migrants who died were killed “in jostling and falling from the iron fence” during “an assault marked by the use of very violent methods by the migrants.”
The head of the African Union (AU) Commission, Chad’s Moussa Faki Mahamat, denounced Sunday night “the violent and degrading treatment of African migrants.”
A closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council is scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the unfortunate event, while African ambassadors to Morocco were received on Sunday by officials of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior in Rabat.
Friday’s attempt has resulted in the deadliest toll ever recorded in the many attempts by sub-Saharan migrants to enter Melilla and the neighboring Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
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