Migrant Deaths At Morocco-EU Border Caused By Police 'Trap', Survivors Claim

Moroccan authorities took a series of fateful decisions that led to the deaths of dozens of asylum seekers attempting to scale the border fence into the Spanish north African territory of Melilla two years ago, survivors and an investigation by an NGO have claimed.

- Lorenzo Tondo, Sam Jones

At least 27 people died when up to 2,000 asylum seekers tried to climb over the fence on 24 June 2022 - the deadliest day in recent memory along the EU land border with Africa - while 70 others remain missing and unaccounted for.

Amnesty International has said the "widespread use of unlawful force" by Moroccan and Spanish authorities contributed to the fatalities and a UN working group of experts described the deaths as evidence of the "racialised exclusion and deadly violence deployed to keep out people of African and Middle Eastern descent".

The investigation by the Border Forensics NGO, which includes testimonies from survivors and satellite images, has claimed evidence suggests Moroccan authorities pushed the asylum seekers to the border while also increasing its militarisation.

Dozens of survivors told Border Forensics that hundreds of people were forced to move to the southern part of Mount Gourougou - about 4 miles from the Melilla barrier - after attacks by Moroccan law enforcement agents in the days before the deaths at the border.

"The police started attacking us and throwing stones at us - they destroyed all our food and water. They did this so that we would leave," a survivor told the NGO.