MADRID: More than 200 African migrants stormed over a high double fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Saturday, officials said, leaving some of them and a police officer injured.
A total of 209 people from sub-Saharan Africa seeking to get to Europe forced their way across the fence in the afternoon, the central government’s representative office in Melilla said in a statement.
The police officer who was injured was “attacked by an immigrant with one of the hooks they use to clamber up the fence” as he tried to stop them, the statement said, adding the implement cut his earlobe.
In order to get across, migrants often use hooks and shoes studded with nails.
Four of the migrants, meanwhile, were sent to hospital for minor injuries, it added.
Mobile phone footage broadcast by Spanish media showed a group of migrants running through the streets of the city.
They have since been taken to a migrant detention center.
The barrier is composed of two six-meter-high (20-feet-high) fences, with criss-crossing steel cables in between.
Melilla and Ceuta, another Spanish enclave nearly 400 kilometers (250 miles) away on the north coast of Africa, are often used as entry points into Europe for African migrants.
They have the only two land borders between Africa and the European Union.
Over the years, thousands of migrants have attempted to cross the 12-kilometer (7.5 mile) frontier between Melilla and Morocco, or the eight-kilometer border at Ceuta, by climbing the border fences, swimming along the coast or hiding in vehicles.
Spain is increasingly targeted by people desperate to reach Europe from Africa, with the number of migrants reaching the country in 2017 hitting a record high of nearly 22,900, according to EU border agency Frontex.
This was more than double the previous record set in 2016.
More than 200 migrants storm Morocco-Spain border
More than 200 migrants storm Morocco-Spain border
France, Algeria to resume security cooperation: minister
- Algeria plays a key role in the latter, sharing borders with junta-led Niger and Mali, both gripped by terrorist violence
ALGIERS: France and Algeria agreed on Tuesday to restart security cooperation during a visit to Algiers by French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, marking the first sign of a thaw in diplomatic ties.
After meeting with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Nunez said both sides had agreed to “reactivate a high-level security cooperation mechanism.”
The visit took place against a backdrop of thorny relations between France and its former colony, frayed since Paris in 2024 officially backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, where Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Nunez said Monday had been devoted to working sessions aimed at “restoring normal security relations,” including cooperation in judicial matters, policing and intelligence.
He thanked the Algerian president for instructing his services to work with French authorities to “improve cooperation on readmissions.” Algeria has for months refused to take back its nationals living irregularly in France.
The renewed cooperation is expected to take effect “as quickly as possible” and continue “at a very high level,” Nunez confirmed.
According to images released by Algerian authorities, the talks brought together senior security officials from both countries, including France’s domestic intelligence chief and Algeria’s head of internal security.
Invited by his counterpart Said Sayoud, Nunez’s trip had been planned for months but repeatedly delayed.
Both sides have a backlog of issues to tackle. Before traveling, Nunez said he intended to raise “all security issues,” including drug trafficking and counterterrorism.
Algeria plays a key role in the latter, sharing borders with junta-led Niger and Mali, both gripped by terrorist violence.
Ahead of the trip, Nunez had also mentioned the case of Christophe Gleizes, a French sports journalist serving a seven-year sentence for “glorifying terrorism.”
It is unclear whether the matter was discussed with Tebboune, from whom the journalist’s family has requested a pardon.
