Migrants who were apprehended during the Melilla stampede told the court that their crossing to Morocco was facilitated by a network that operates along a 5,000-kilometer route from Sudan and ends in the leadership of a Malian trafficker called Boss in Algeria.
Thirteen of those prosecuted before the Nador Court of Appeal for charges of human trafficking- nine Sudanese, two South Sudanese, and two Chadians told the court their entry to Morocco was facilitated by a tattooed 35-year-old Malian named Boss who lives on a farm in the Algerian city of Maghnia, 10 kilometers from the Moroccan border, according to a detailed account by Spanish agency EFE.
Having arrived from Sudan to Libya to the North-Western town of Maghnia, the migrants recounted meeting hundreds of people waiting to cross to Morocco’s easter city Oujda. In Maghnia, they waited for weeks before being signaled by Boss’s men to travel to Morocco at costs ranging between 300 and 500 euros in Algeria and Morocco.
Upon arrival in Morocco, the migrants were received in homes in Oujda before going to Berkane and eventually Melilla.
Of the 64 people prosecuted in the case, several agreed that coordination and communication between the different members of the Boss network are done through messaging applications and a closed Facebook group, where they decide how and when to cross the Melilla fence.
According to the migrants, once in the mountains near Nador, the Moroccan province bordering Melilla, they organize themselves in forest camps waiting for the moment to jump the fence.
They said planning the assault took place in a hierarchical structure with a leader and subgroups commanded by a dozen bosses who would monitor the forests, resolve problems, look for food, or train migrants on using weapons such as stones, sticks, and knives.
When thousands of migrants assaulted the Melillaborder on Friday, leading to the deadliest toll ever recorded on the border, the group was a few kilometers from the fence. In the forefront the leaders and people trained to resist the police led the march, others were in charge of opening the fence the migrants told the court.
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.”
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