A group of 119 Sub-Saharan migrants managed on Monday to enter Spanish-occupied Melilla city, after jumping over a triple metal fence that separates the enclave from Morocco, Spanish authorities said.
The Police directorate in Melilla told AFP that 200 migrants had tried to force their way from Morocco but the Spanish Civil Guard and Moroccan police quickly mobilized to try to stop them.
However, 119 migrants, all men, managed to enter Melilla and they were immediately taken to a government-run center for migrants and placed in a special area to be tested for Covid-19.
The Police added that five civil guards and a migrant were injured in the incident.
Melilla and nearby Ceuta, Spain's other autonomous city on the northern African coast, are considered a traditional magnet for Africans wishing to cross into Europe, fleeing poverty or violence.
The Spanish territories near the Moroccan border are Europe’s only land crossing with Africa.
Last May, more than 10,000 migrants, mostly young and adolescent Moroccans, had managed to cross the Ceuta borders, amid escalating tension between Spain and Morocco since last April over the arrival of the Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to Spain for medical treatment. Although Ghali left to Algeria in June, relations remain strained between the two sides.
On Monday, Melilla police underlined the “active collaboration” of the Moroccan police in an effort to prevent the entry of migrants.
