RABAT, Morocco — Activists on Wednesday urged Morocco to launch an “unbiased” investigation into the deaths of a minimum of 23 migrants who had been attempting to enter Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla final week.
The Moroccan Affiliation for Human Rights demanded in a letter to the overall prosecutor on the Nador Court docket of Attraction that an investigation be opened into the occasions earlier than any burials of the useless.
They died when lots of of migrants tried to scale the closely guarded border fence between Nador and Melilla. Extra 200 migrants and safety officers had been injured.
“The one situation for transparency concerning the ‘Black Friday’ occasions in Nador is the opening of a judicial inquiry, finishing up the mandatory autopsies, and serving to to establish the victims,” the affiliation mentioned in an announcement.
Spain’s prime minister has defended the way in which Moroccan and Spanish police repelled migrants as they tried to cross the shared border, depicting the try as “an assault on Spain’s borders.” His left-center authorities is attempting to enhance ties with Morocco following an acrimonious diplomatic dispute over Western Sahara.
Earlier the affiliation claimed that metropolis officers had been burying unidentified useless migrants in a minimum of 21 graves dug in a neighborhood cemetery.
The affiliation mentioned that many migrants are at present being held by police pending trial. The bulk are from Sudan and Chad.
A delegation from the Moroccan state-affiliated human rights group CNDH visited the Nador hospital Wednesday to see injured migrants, and visited the morgue the place the our bodies of victims are held. The group says the go to is a part of a fact-finding mission about final week’s occasions.
Activists say that isn’t sufficient. A sit-in is deliberate for Friday outdoors the parliament constructing in Rabat to indicate assist for migrants who misplaced their lives on the Mellila border.
Opposition events within the Home of Representatives have referred to as International Minister Nasser Bourita to the stand and demanded a proof for what befell on the Melilla border.
Human rights teams have deplored the remedy the migrants obtained from police on each side.
