Rabat has decided to reopen the Rif Mines, in whose abandoned excavations the sub-Saharans who stormed the fence in June were hiding
Morocco will promote dealing with excavators, trucks, miners and engineers who are today abandoned shacks that Sub-Saharan migrants used as a last refuge on Mount Uixán, in the surroundings of Melilla. Police sources from the Spanish city confirm to this newspaper the notice they have received from the other side of the border in which, on June 24, the deadly assault took place that resulted in at least 23 deaths due to crushing.
The caves of Mount Uixán are old iron mines abandoned after the end of the Spanish protectorate, which the Moroccan government now plans to reopen. In the days before to the assault on the fence on June 24 -in which 1,700 migrants participated, according to a count by the Ministry of the Interior – the Moroccan gendarmes had in turn assaulted with successive charges the massive settlements of sub-Saharans on the nearby Gurugú mountain, where thousands of candidates were crowded to set foot on European territory.
The Moroccan police were burning the tents, causing the displacement of travelers to the neighboring mountain, Uixán, south of Gurugú, in whose abandoned mines they hid until dawn on the day of the march against the border fence.
Some of the raiders they walked 31 kilometers surrounding the Gurugú to reach the fence. After the tragedy, new raids by the gendarmerie and the mehanis put an end to the presence of the migrants who remained in Uixán, who were transferred to distant points in the south of the country.
The business
On the other side of the fence of Melilla – a city once again subject to border tension – they call it Jebel Ouiksane, and for Rabat it has become, interpret the police sources consulted, the scene of an opportunity to try to eliminate redoubts usable by immigration illegal, reduce the dependency of the Nador region on the smuggling business with Melilla and compete with new iron mines that Algeria has sold to China. The sources consulted did not want to confirm or deny whether this matter was discussed at the recent high-level meeting between senior security officials of the Spanish and Moroccan states.
The Moroccan government has launched an appeal to investors through its National Office of Mines and Hydrocarbons, which have collected media from the local press. In that entity are registered the old mining licenses of the Spanish Compañía de Minas del Rif, founded in 1908 and dissolved in 1984 due to the gradual depletion of the veins.
The new iron prices and the political objective of separating Nador from smuggling made the mines profitable again. The prices of bonds on the future of iron have known increases of up to 25% (December 2020) or 16.5% last January, although it also a 17% decline in July. The cost of a metric ton of ore imported from China has been on an upward trend since 2005, with some ups and downs during the financial crisis.
Rabat has given term to investors until November 1. The next day, its Mining Department will open tenders to obtain a 50-year concession. And there will be possibly Chinese.
again tension
Nerves build up again at this start of autumn around the border. It is no longer just for the expectation of the establishment of a commercial customs; is, above all, for the slowness with which the Moroccan border guards They review the documentation at the Beni Enzar pass.
It happens at the beginning and at the end of the weekends. Melillans leaving the city form long queues on Fridays, but those are smaller than those that stretch around Beni Enzar and the streets that flank the Nador port quay.
Last Sunday there were hundreds of people from Melilla, the majority of Moroccan origin, who tried to return to their homes in the Spanish city after waiting in a long queue until the wee hours of the morning.
In the surroundings of the port, in addition, there is usually an endless line of carsdespite which, the same sources consulted confirm, Morocco does not increase the number of agents to review documentation, but rather reduces it at night.