Free Republic

Spain has ordered troops to help police secure the borders of two enclaves in northern Morocco where four Africans died Thursday and about 50 others were injured in a stampede of would-be immigrants. Defense Minister Jose Bono told reporters in Parliament that Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had told him to deploy soldiers to help the Civil Guard patrolling the wire fences that separate the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco. ``The president of the government has given me the order that as of today the Civil Guard should be reinforced by the army to tackle this problem,...

Immigrants have used home-made ladders to scale the fences (Image: Melilla Hoy) Hundreds of immigrants have tried to break through border fences around the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa for a second night running. Some 200 succeeded in crossing, say Spanish police. Some 100 made it across the day before. Almost 30 people, including policemen, have been injured in the mass assaults. Melilla and nearby Ceuta are seen as stepping stones to Europe by African immigrants. Spain is doubling the height of the fences around Melilla. Almost all the migrants who make it into an enclave claim asylum...