Dozens of migrants lie at the feet of the Moroccan police, most of them lazy. In rags, some injured, hands tied behind their backs. These images were taken on Friday June 24th in Beni Ensar on the border between Morocco and Melilla, one of the two Spanish and therefore European enclaves on the African continent.
About two hours earlier, several hundred migrants had tried to force the border post. According to Moroccan authorities, at least 23 migrants died “crushing and falling from iron fences,” while migrants and NGOs question the police’s violent repression. What do the pictures taken that day show?
The amateur videos and testimonies authenticated and geolocated by Le Monde make it possible to reconstruct the events that led to this tragedy and to highlight the gray areas.
A prepared attempt
In the forest of Mount Gourougou, on the outskirts of the city, migrants have survived for years in makeshift camps, under police pressure, sometimes leaving them without water and food. In these conditions, the migrants spent at least a month preparing their attempt to cross the border on June 24, according to testimonies collected by Le Monde ten days after the tragedy. Migrants from other regions of Morocco, warned about the preparations for the coup, took the opportunity to join the Beni Ensar camps.
Moroccan security forces, informed of the project, launched an unsuccessful sweep of the forest on June 23 to evict the migrants. Clashes ensued, which were widely reported in the local media. “They gave us twenty-four hours to leave the place,” one migrant told World.
In red the path of the migrant column to the border post Barrio Chino, marked in yellow. © The World
Forced passage
At dawn on Friday May 24, a group of 1,300 to 2,000 migrants set off from Mount Gourougou. Your goal: to reach Beni Ensar and the border district of Barrio Chino. Contrary to previous attempts, most migrants do not plan to scale the fences but rather to breach the border post and then open the doors leading to Melilla and Europe.
In these images the column progresses to the edge.
Some migrants are armed with sticks.
At first, Moroccan law enforcement appears passive, even absent.
As we approached the fence, the first clashes erupted: “The police were waiting for us at the barrier,” says Bicha, 17, originally from Darfur; “some were in front of us and behind us; we were surrounded”.
In the images below, Moroccan police in riot gear charge after the migrants. The images show several officers using stun grenades but also throwing stones, either by hand or with slingshots.
The Barrio Chino Trap
While some of the migrants turned back, about six hundred others managed to gather around the border post.
They enter the enclosure surrounded by the police. In the images we analyzed, some migrants reach the checkpoint by walking along the border fence, others scale the main gate or a side wall surmounted by a fence and barbed wire.
In red, the three entry points for migrants at the border post. © The World
Under the weight of the migrants, a section of this fence facing the street collapses.
These images were widely circulated by the Moroccan pro-government media to explain the heavy human toll.
Her statements are disputed by several migrants interviewed by Le Monde, who claim no one died at the time and few were injured. The pictures taken a few minutes after the fence collapsed also show no bodies of migrants.
The migrants, stuck in the yard between the Moroccan and Spanish fences, suffered dozens of projectiles from Moroccan security forces surrounding the border post. Sonic grenades and again stones are used.
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Footage taken from the roof of the border post shows migrants responding with projectiles.
At the back of the courtyard, dozens of migrants crowd past barred doors, the last ones separating them from the turnstiles for access to the Spanish enclave. This is where the deadliest events of the day will take place.
“It was terrible to see that”
To get to Spain, narrow passages lead to turnstiles that regulate entry and exit drop by drop. This border post is referred to by several sources as the bottleneck.
Hundreds of migrants have flowed there, according to the Moroccan authorities. In this narrow space scuffles would then have taken place, which would have caused the death by suffocation of several migrants present. A “traffic jam” confirmed Bicha: “We were many in this room. »
Even if the images are missing to accurately document the events in the courtyard, several migrants interviewed by Le Monde confirm that the compression movement in front of the station doors is not the main cause of the deaths.
“That is not the reason for the injuries and deaths,” emphasizes Bicha. “The police beat us. There were rubber bullets, tranquilizer batons and exploding grenades. Several migrants describe Moroccan agents armed with flash balls, batons and stones being used without restraint. “It was horrible to see,” says Abrahim, another migrant. “Some have lost an eye, teeth. Some had their skulls cut open and their arms or legs broken. They beat us like they wanted us dead. »
Particularly widespread images show an officer pushing a migrant to the ground while one of his colleagues throws another migrant at him.
The slowness of relief
Migrants and associations point out the slowness of the care provided by the Moroccan authorities. Several images show dozens of dead or injured lying in front of the border post where they were collected by the police. In the shade it is almost 30°C.
According to the Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH), “rescue teams were not mobilized immediately. The injured migrants remained on the ground in the blazing sun for several hours.”
This day, June 24th, marks one of the deadliest migration dramas at Europe’s land borders. At least 23 migrants died according to the Moroccan authorities, around thirty according to AMDH. Moroccan authorities also reported 76 migrants and 140 injured officers. And 133 migrants managed to enter Melilla, where they were housed in the only makeshift reception center for migrants in the Spanish enclave.