Following the mysterious death of scores of African migrants within the border of Spain, the Journalist International Forum for Migration, JIFORM, has called on European Union and other international organisations to set up an investigation into the incident with a view to unraveling the cause of the death of the migrants.
Dr. Abayomi Ajibola the National President of JIFORM made the call in Lagos, Nigeria.
The JIFORM President added that commensurable action must be met with the incidence.
In a communication issued and signed by him, Dr. Ajibola, was of the view that the incidence was a deliberate wickedness saying that the dead migrants and others on danger list as a result of injuries sustained, were mere victims of unfortunate situations and ought to have been treated with the absolute care in line with the global best practices.
About 18 Africans seeking to cross into Spain on Friday were killed and scores of migrants and police were injured in what Moroccan authorities said was a “stampede” of people surging across Morocco’s border fence with the Spanish North African enclave of Melilla.
Last Friday, a total of 133 migrants breached the border between the Moroccan city of Nador and Melilla the first such mass crossing since Spain and Morocco mended diplomatic relations last month.
A spokesperson for the Spanish government’s office in Melilla said about 2,000 people attempted to cross, but many were stopped by Spanish Civil Guard police and Moroccan forces on either side of the border fence.
Morocco’s Interior Ministry in a statement said that the casualties occurred when people tried to climb the iron fence. It said five migrants were killed and 76 injured, and 140 Moroccan security officers were injured.
Death toll rose to 18 when 13 of the injured migrants later died in the hospital, according to Morocco’s official news agency MAP, which cited local authorities. But the Moroccan Human Rights Association reported 27 dead but the figure could not immediately be confirmed.
Meanwhile Spanish officials said 49 Civil Guards sustained minor injuries, while four police vehicles were damaged by rocks thrown by some migrants.
However, those who succeeded in crossing went to a local migrant centre, where authorities are evaluating their circumstances.
People fleeing poverty and violence sometimes make mass attempts to reach Melilla and the other Spanish territory on the North African coast, Ceuta, as a springboard to continental Europe.
Spain normally relies on Morocco to keep migrants away from the border.
Spanish authorities said more than 3,500 people tried to scale the six-meter (20-foot) barrier that surrounds Melilla and nearly 1,000 made it across in two days at the beginning of March.
The crossings last Friday were the first attempt since relations between Spain and Morocco improved in March after a year-long dispute centered on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976.
Morocco loosened its controls around Ceuta last year, giving opportunity to thousands of migrants to cross into Spain. The move was viewed as retaliation for Spain’s decision to allow the leader of Western Sahara’s pro-independence movement to be treated for COVID-19 at an hospital in Spain.
Tensions between the two countries began to strain earlier this year after Spain backed Morocco’s plan to grant more autonomy to Western Sahara, where activists are seeking full independence.
