A court in the Moroccan city of Nador sentenced 13 migrants to prison on Wednesday for storming the Spanish exclave of Melilla. AP news agency reported this on Thursday. The migrants, most of whom come from Sudan, are given two and a half years in prison.
Five hundred migrants attempted to climb over the border fences to Melilla, the exclave on Morocco’s northeast coast, on June 24. At least 23 of them have died, AP writes. Never before have so many people died trying to cross the border. Nearly 80 other migrants and about 140 police and security officers were injured, according to earlier reports.
The 13 migrants heard various charges, including violence against officials and disobedience. In previous sessions, 47 others have already been convicted, but they were given a maximum of 11 months in prison.
‘Human rights violations’
“A very harsh verdict” responds the Moroccan human rights organization AMDH on Twitter. “It shows how the judiciary was mobilized against migrants, in the service of migration policy.” Amnesty spoke shortly after the storming of ‘human rights violations’ over crackdown by the Spanish and Moroccan police.
Also read: ‘We Sudanese young people are doomed to storm fences’