The agents in Melilla alert: "Morocco rules here, when they want to punish Spain they will allow a massive jump again"
The controversy and doubts surrounding the tragedy of the Melilla fence have not faded but have grown a year after 23 migrants -according to the official figure and 37, according to NGOs- died at the border crossing while trying to reach Europe. The jump to the fence early in the morning of June 24, 2022 was dynamite for the Ministry of Fernando Grande-Marlaska. What happened there attracted the attention of Europe, the world media and inflamed the NGOs and all the opposition parties.
Five months later, the BBC added insult to injury in the worst possible way: a documentary placed some deceased migrants in an area under Spanish control.. To this day, the number of people who lost their lives remains unknown.. During this time, Grande-Marlaska has always tried to distance the tragedy from his Ministry and tear down any alternative construction to his story – shared by the Civil Guard – that there were no deaths on the Spanish side and that the police action took place based on the legality.
The Minister of the Interior has also had to face the Ombudsman – who accused him of illegal and massive deportations -, the insistence of the European Parliament for him to appear and explain what happened and the contempt of humanitarian organizations. In the middle, the civil guards in charge of guarding the border. Twelve months later, they reflect on a drama that, they warn, will repeat itself “when Morocco wants”. Their years of experience lead them to that conclusion.. They know how the Alaouite kingdom works and also the determination of the migrants to reach Europe.
“They are going to keep coming, they are going to keep trying to cross the fence because they are desperate.. They have not traveled 3,000 kilometers in Africa to return home at the gates of Europe”, reasons one of them.. At this time, says another of the agents consulted, they have evidence that there are 1,500 migrants in Mount Gurugú, the redoubt in which they take refuge before trying to violate the fence. They regret that what happened on June 24, 2022 has not served the Interior to take note. «We continue exactly the same as a year ago. Without the means, neither material nor human, to face another avalanche of these characteristics”, they complain.
They denounce that the broken shields that day have not been repaired and that the riot helmets announced by the minister after the events did not arrive either. “We continue with the same teams as 30 years ago,” they lament. “We feel abandoned by the hand of God,” they conclude.
“Nothing has changed”
Among the agents of the staff of border agents there is resentment. “At first it was all shows of support. The minister comes a lot but at the moment of truth nothing has changed. Things continue exactly at the same point and here, we all know from our own experience, that Morocco rules. When he wants to punish Spain, he will return to allowing a massive jump ». At the time of the avalanche, they specify, there were only five guards to contain the more than 2,000 people who were trying to reach Spain. The border crossing experienced an episode of extreme violence.
The assault showed that nothing has changed in the structure of border control. The agents had to contain the crowd with the same riot gear as 30 years ago, despite the Ministry's announcement after the border debacle that had occurred in March. At that time, there were 16 civil guards watching the fence and, as happened in March 2022 – when the most massive assault in history on the Melilla fence was recorded with 2,500 people in an avalanche in what was the fourth massive attempt that the Civil Guard had to repel in six days. A total of 800 migrants made it (4,300 tried) and practically all of them have already applied for asylum – that turned into a pitched battle between those who wanted to enter Spain and the agents in charge of guarding the border.. There were 50 Civil Guard and National Police officers injured and 23 migrants dead, according to official data.. Shortly after, the Ministry of the Interior caused a monumental storm in the Civil Guard -especially among the agents who monitor the fence of Melilla- with the sudden dismissal of the head of the city Command. Jesús Vicente Torresano was removed from the Melilla Command after staging his differences with the General Directorate of the Armed Institute weeks after being appointed.
According to Corps sources, Torresano wanted to implement specific instructions so that the agents could act under the law against the migrants who attacked them in successive jumps over the fence and refused to open an information file on the civil guards who threw stones at the sub-Saharans who wanted to reach Spain on June 24.
Jucil's communication secretary, Agustín Leal, describes a chronic situation. “This Administration and the Ministry continue to neglect security and the consequences are paid in the first instance by the civil guards and then by the population.. We ask that national and EU legislation on immigration matters be applied because that will mitigate the so-called effect. It is not acceptable that any person who accesses our territory illegally and through unauthorized points is authorized to process asylum.” .