Posted on 09/28/2005 10:50:22 PM PDT by HAL9000
Six died in a massive assault of immigrants in the fence that separates Ceuta of Morocco
Six people have passed away this dawn in a massive assault of about 600 immigrants to the fence that separates Ceuta of Morocco, has informed the chain TO BE, that mentions police sources. The assault began on the 3,30 although shortly before, like distraction maneuver, a hundred of people tried to penetrate more in Spain in the border area watched over the police. This new incident in the border with the neighbor of the south takes place hours before a summit begins Hispanic-Moroccan in Seville.
Of deceaseds three they have been in Spanish territory and three in Moroccan. At the moment, so much is ignored the number of wounded as well as the one of people who have managed to enter Spain. In the last days the attempts to penetrate in Spain had taken place in the border that separates Melilla of the Moroccan territory.
After this serious incident the security bodies have initiated a search to stop in the zones bordering to the immigrants who have transferred the border. To 7,30 in the morning normality in the zone has recovered, although police vehicles and ambulances cross the border perimeter.
Before this situation of crisis the Department of the Interior announced that it is going to reinforce the cash of the Civil Guard that patrol in Melilla to improve the security systems. In addition, the Army had to raise tents in this independent city to welcome in the 300 immigrants who managed to jump the fence Tuesday the past.
African migrants launch new mass assault on Spanish border
MADRID (Reuters) - Hundreds of Africans using makeshift ladders tried to scale a razor wire barrier into a Spanish enclave in Morocco in the second mass assault on the border in 24 hours, the government said on Wednesday.
Spain's North African enclave of Melilla asked the army for help after 400 migrants tried to scramble into its territory on Tuesday night. Some 200 succeeded, adding to the 100 or more who entered during a bid by 500 people before dawn on Tuesday.
Forty of the mainly sub-Saharans involved in the latest attempt were injured, along with five civil guards, a government spokesman in Melilla said.
Spain is already in the process of reinforcing the fence surrounding the colony to try to keep out would-be migrants, many of whom have travelled on foot for months for the chance of entering Europe.
This week's mass assaults on the lower part of the fence may have been brought on by work to double its height to six metres (20 feet) along the whole 10 km (6 mile) border, which is now nearing completion.
Spain has owned the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern coast of Morocco since the late 15th Century.
Morocco, which claims them, is struggling to deal with an influx of sub-Saharan Africans into its territory as well as curb its own citizens' attempts to use sea routes to cross to Spain illegally.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
"Peeking over the gates of Melilla and Ceuta is the tip of a human iceberg formed by hundreds of thousands of African citizens "expelled" from their own countries by hunger, war, poverty or persecution," Spain's Secretary of State for Security, Antonio Camacho, told Congress on Wednesday.
"This creates a delicate, complex and serious problem for the country," he said.
Migrant pressure on Melilla is nothing new but it has increased dramatically in recent years, he added.
In 2002, police stopped and turned back 12,000 people at the border and by 2004 that had risen to almost 56,000.
Many of those who travel to Melilla camp in woods outside the fence, subsisting on next to nothing for long periods, while waiting for a chance to cross.
The reception centre inside the territory is saturated and the government has erected tents to house more of those who succeed in getting through.
Sub-Saharan immigrants present Spain with a worse problem than Moroccans or Algerians, whom it simply sends back, because it often lacks repatriation agreements with their countries of origin.
Spain has such a deal with Nigeria, is negotiating with Ghana but is only in preliminary talks with Cameroon and Mali, from where many of the migrants come, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Spain therefore often has no choice but to free these migrants, after handing them an expulsion order which the authorities cannot carry out.
Reception centres in the Canary Islands -- another frequent destination for boatloads of illegals -- and the enclaves regularly become saturated. The government then transports migrants to mainland Spain and releases them there where they typically hang out in city parks and try to make a living selling pirate CDS or, if they are lucky, working in construction.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Sounds like another 'religion of peace' alert.
I think those plans are now, shall we say, on hold.
The problem is that the Spanish enclaves have faster internet access. And that is drawing the people from the northern african countries to envade, because they just can't run enough scams in their own countries.
btt 4 l8r
This didn't take place in sub-Saharan Africa. Ceuta is on the North coast in the Mediterranean Sea.
Most of the Africans probably are Muslims, but their attempt to get out of their dysfunctional African states is more economic than anything else. Where the Muslim connection comes in is with Morocco, which Zapatero is courting heavily (in his hatred for all things Spanish).
The two Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla now appear on Moroccan maps in the Moroccan color. Bear in mind that these cities have been Spanish much longer than they have been anything else - "Morocco" is a fairly new construct in the history of states or even kingdoms. But many people are certain that ZP plans to hand them over to Morocco before too long. He had his picture taken last year with the Moroccan king standing in front of one of these maps.
ZP is obsessed with his hatred of the Catholic Church and European Spain, and will do anything to weaken them, even if it means dismembering his own country. He has bent over backwards to accomodate Morocco in every way, shape and form, even though it is known that Morocco was heavily involved in the March 11 bombings and that Moroccans are increasingly turning up among Islamic terrorists on the loose in Spain and Europe in general.
You are right. Thanks for the note.
The incident took place in northern Africa. I should have fixed the headline when I found the places on the map.
But if I understand correctly, most of the people attempting to cross were of sub-Saharan African origin.
About 2/3 of them were sub-Saharan Africans. The five who were shot, btw, have now been found to have been shot in the back - by the Moroccan security forces. The plot thickens.
Spanish soldiers patrol the border between Morocco and Spain's enclave of Melilla, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005. Both countries are finalizing an emergency plan to return Africans who illegally entered Spain from Morocco, hours after another 500-strong wave of desperate men tried to reach this outpost of Europe in search of a better life. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos) 
Spanish soldiers patrol the border between Morocco and Spain's enclave of Melilla, in north Africa Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005. Both countries are finalizing an emergency plan to return Africans who illegally entered Spain from Morocco, hours after another 500-strong wave of desperate men tried to reach this outpost of Europe in search of a better life. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
Clothes hang in a razor wired fence as workers repair the fence in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Wednesday, Oct 5, 2005, after African immigrants defied increased security to stage another rush at the border between Morocco and a Spanish enclave on Wednesday, the fifth in a week. Around 500 men divided into two groups tried to climb two razor-wire fences separating Morocco from Melilla, around 40 managed to get into Spain. (AP Photo/Jasper Juinen)
Now that's a fence!!
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