A room of the Melilla Civil Guard Command. The deputies who have arrived from Madrid observe some videos that explains Lieutenant Colonel Ortegaaccidental head of the armed institute in the city. Jon Iñárritu, from EH Bildu, comments that what is seen takes place in Spanish territory. former socialist minister Jose Luis Abalospresident of the commission, replies: “No. It is such as airport transit areas“. The abertzale does not accept the argument.
The discussion, produced mid-morning this Monday during the visit of eight deputies of the Interior Commission of the Lower House to Melilla, did not go further, but it is the key around which the political fight revolves for what happened on the morning of June 24 at the Chinatown crossing in Nador, the weakest section of Morocco’s border with Melilla.
The scene of one of the worst migratory tragedies of the year, in which at least 23 migrants lost their lives sub-Saharan, has been visited this Monday by deputies of the Congress’s Interior Commission. After the visit, the representatives of United We Can, Esquerra and Bildu have argued -some reiterated- that there were deaths in Spanish territory, as some NGOs have reported to the BBC for his report ‘Death on the border’, whose echo has flanked the visit.
Interior has allowed access to the border post, contrary to what the popular deputy predicted Ana Vazquez. There has been a moment of silence, in which only footsteps sounded in the installation.
Before the door that leads to the “narrow & rdquor; corridor – one of the visitors describes it this way – opens towards Morocco the old width of the zone of nobody that for 30 years has been under Moroccan police control. And before that, the fully Moroccan territory. From the door to here, a corridor a little more than one person wide and two locked metal turnstiles. It is the transit area a few meters to the control of the National Police. It is the point at which those who accuse the Government maintain that one of the dead fell, a version that the Interior denies.
Videos
The deputies have seen part of video evidence of that event that the Spanish authorities keep, images obtained by a drone that flew over the area.
When the migrants died, the civil guards had retreated back on the Spanish side, away from the stoning and to remove two wounded agents.
The current lieutenant colonel head of the Melilla civil guard -waiting for the relief of the previous colonel- He has detailed to the deputies how the initial interposition device was before the thousands of migrants who tried to cross into Spanish territory: only ten guards.
At the time when most of the dead could have died, when 2,000 people crowded the recently forced door of the border post, the agents had retreated back, he explained, walking away from a big stoning and to remove two wounded guards.
The later riot control device employed more than 80 gas canisters and made more than 60 rubber canister shots -the number varies according to the sources- against the migrants who passed to the Spanish side by jumping from the roof of the building. “None of those who were rejected at the border had serious injuries. They were on their own feet,” Interior sources point out, recalling that rejection at the border (return to Morocco in full illegal entry) is “perfectly legal.”
The deputies have been assured that they will be able to see the rest of the videos, the same ones that two prosecutors have seen. Two have ordered copies. Interior has not provided them because it is material under judicial investigation. The deputies will be able to see the rest in a closed-door session in Congress that does not yet have a date.
Trip
The trip to Melilla did have a date. It has not been produced according to the advance made by the BBC of its report. It was approved on October 26 by the Congress Table and announced the next day to the deputies by Ábalos.
The trip was for Interior spokespersons of the parliamentary groups and members of the Interior Commission table. Considering it “a farce & rdquor; Before taking place, the Vox spokesman was deleted this weekend from the list of attendees, Javier Ortega-Smith.
The deputies have arrived in Melilla after 10 and have left at 15:30. They arrived on a regular flight, without passing through the authorities’ area. Before leaving, the Government Delegation gave them a snack.
Marlaska denies the accusations.
Related news
While Melilla was visited, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, stepped out of what was stated about the tragedy of the fence: “There was no death in Spanish territory & rdquor ;, he told EFE after inspecting the works of a new police station in Cuenca. “No report may refer that the Civil Guard has had some kind of responsibility in the tragic deaths“, he told Europa Press.
Marlaska has once again defended the action of the Civil Guard and has recalled the data and the main argument of the Government: the data, that 55 guards were injured, two of them seriously; and the argument, that it was “a violent attack on a border of the EU”.