Posted on 10/07/2005 3:38:47 PM PDT by aculeus
An aid agency says it has found more than 500 migrants abandoned in the Moroccan desert after being expelled from Spain's North African enclaves.
The migrants said they had entered or tried to enter Ceuta and Melilla but were forced back, loaded onto trucks and driven to the Algerian border.
The discovery by the Spanish branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres follows migrant bids to storm border fences.
Six died on Thursday, some apparently shot while trying to enter Melilla.
Illegal expulsions
A group of 70 migrants were expelled from Melilla on Friday, in the first set of official expulsions expected under a revived 1992 accord between Spain and Morocco.
It allows illegal entrants to be sent back to Morocco, even if they are of different nationalities.
Until now, migrants who successfully entered the enclaves have been housed in holding centres or sent to mainland Spain to await expulsion to their country of origin, often resulting in their release.
But an MSF spokeswoman said that while some of the 500 found in the desert had been detained before they managed to cross the Ceuta and Melilla fences, others had been illegally expelled by Spanish police.
MSF said the sub-Saharan migrants had been "abandoned to their fate" near El Aouina-Souatar, hundreds of kilometres south of the enclaves. The group included pregnant women and children.
The agency said staff had treated more than 50 of them for injuries suffered as a result of crossing the barbed-wire fences.
But the MSF statement claimed some of the injuries were also the result of violence inflicted by the Spanish and Moroccan police as "some showed bruises from being hit by rubber bullets".
EU mission
Javier Gabaldon, co-ordinator in Morocco, denounced the "expulsion and later abandonment of these immigrants to a zone without access to food and water and without the possibility of receiving medical or humanitarian aid".
MSF said "the sending back of immigrants as agreed by Spain and Morocco to a country which does not have minimal capacity to receive them violates Article Three of the (UN) Convention against Torture".
Other aid organisations said they had evidence of similar incidents in recent weeks.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has also raised concerns and called for joint action to tackle the crisis.
The European Union and Spain are both sending missions to Morocco to tackle the issue of illegal immigration. Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2005/10/07 15:03:24 GMT
© BBC MMV
Spain's government has announced plans to upgrade the border fences around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. The security system detailed in the graphic will be installed in the hope of preventing groups of immigrants from storming the fences.
exactly what the United States needs from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico
We need that from the Otay Mesa to the mouth of the Rio Grande.
I think this will get lots of fav comments.
Ah, the only pork the GOP majority *refuses* to fund.
How about the northern border?
Isn't Spain worried that their Muslim population might object and blow up another train or two? After all, some of these African migrants are undoubtedly Muslims.
The New World can be trusted to govern itself. The Third World cannot.
Sorry, but I don't buy that for a minute.
Love the idea of the fence and will never understand why it isn't already in place let alone not even on the drawing board.
Bump.
I guess the Mexicans can fly to Canada and then sneak through our northern border.
The Canadian border could use some personell but there are only around 12,000 illegal crossings from the north as opposed to over a million in the south each year.
I mean,they've declared the US to be the most dangerous nation on earth and they've declared homosexual marriage to be just fine and dandy.
And now we see them trying to deny these poor "undocumented workers" the opportunity to enter their "Utopia".
Do I detect a very large whiff of hypocrisy on the part of this enlightened continent we call "Europe"?
We have a President who wants open borders from Canada to Mexico, that's why.
I wish FOX would go there and show the wall.
They need to put about 20,000 volts of juice to that fence.
Agree. I was just posing the question but remain deeply disillusioned with W, and not just about his Admins brain dead response to Illegal Immigration.
The Administration's position may be sickening and reprehensible, but it is by no means 'brain dead'.
It is a calculated assault on the middle class in the interest of cheap, disposable labor and an undifferentiated voting bloc.
Count yourselves lucky I'm not Dictator Of he World, pig-criminal scum.
"the sending back of immigrants as agreed by Spain and Morocco to a country which does not have minimal capacity to receive them violates Article Three of the (UN) Convention against Torture".
The way I read it, if they can successfully break & enter, the victim then has a perpetual obligation to feed, clothe, medicate, and house them.
And, yet, their voluntarily entering Morocco illegally, and camping there until ready to attempt crashing the fence, is perfectly fine? It is only being tossed back that is "torture"?
Just more proof the UN is a criminal enterprise, of the criminals, by the criminals, for the criminals.
Where is the outrage? Where are the calls from the White House to exercise restraint? Doesn't the world understand that poor Palestinians are offended by this fence?
Oh, this is Spain and not Israel? Ah, then it's OK to have a fence. One standard for Israel, another for the rest of the wold.
We might impove on it just a tad but we still need one of those!
I like concrete.
Do not forget the Canadian border. I've lived near both borders. The Canadian one is far more of a joke to cross than the Mexican one is. I'm much more concerned about a terrorist coming into the US through North Dakota than I am about one coming in through Eagle Pass.
It is a shortsighted ploy that will end up ensuring the death of the Conservative approach to Gov't by, as you say, the destruction of the Middle Class if not addressed - That is if it is not already too late. Ergo, 'Brain Dead'
...as if MORE such proof was needed...???
Well said, and I completely agree.
Out of curiosity, what about the Bush presidency leads you to believe he gives a damn about 'a Conservative approach to government'?
Now wait just a durn minute, pard! We got us a fence already down here in Arizona! Why, just get a look at this beauty:
I mean tarnation, son! Read all about it right cheer!
What we need, yes, but what we'll never get.
Remember when Bush called the Minutemen "vigilantes?"
If the Pres believes that, what would someone like him think about a fence like thise from the gulf to the ocean?
Got me stumped there. Originally, assumed that, as a Rep he would carry through on the Rep philosophy - You know, those old, quaint cliches about limited Gov't, lower spending, etc., etc., etc. Also assumed the Senate and House would adhere to this approach as well. Guess that's why they say what the say about the word 'Assume' (A$$ out of U and ME) :-(
ROTFLOL!
It allows illegal entrants to be sent back to Morocco, even if they are of different nationalities.
Perhaps we could send a few thousand of our illegals to Morocco?
I never thought I would see a decision of ZP clapped in this forum. Isn't it funny how socialists can change their minds when the have to match their leftists dreams with reality? That's exactly like when the PSOE took Spain into NATO after winning the 82' elections with an anti-NATO speech.
On the other hand, I haven't seen any comment about the obvious lie in the article.
How many trucks do you need for 500 people??? 20? 25?
So the Spanish police sneaked through the border with at least 20 trucks and drove hundreds of miles into a foreign country without being noticed and then went back???
I admire the job of MSF but they should be included in all the handbooks about Stokholm syndrome as the most flattering example. You can't just simply believe everything that this people say. The fact that they are desperate just makes them more likely to lie, not the other way.
The US needs to be building such a fence on our southern border instead of funding pork for senators, such as Ted Stevens's bridge to nowhere in Alaska. Strip the pork projects out of the transportation bill just passed and we'd have a nice chunk of change to get this fence going.
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