MARDRID: Dozens of migrants scaled a fence and crossed the border from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Monday.
This comes just weeks after a similar crisis that saw thousands cross the frontier and clash with security.
Migrants routinely try to enter Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish territories near the Moroccan border — Europe’s only land crossing with Africa.
They swim along the coastline, climb border fences or hide in vehicles, in what can be dangerous or deadly attempts to make it to Europe.
“A total of 119 people got in, all of them men,” a spokesman for the Spanish government’s delegation in Melilla said about the latest incident.
Some 200 people had tried to make the crossing, and five officers from Spain’s Civil Guard police force and a migrant were slightly injured, he added.
Those who entered Spain were taken to a government-run center for migrants where they will be tested for the coronavirus.
Ceuta and Melilla have long been a magnet for migrants desperate to escape grinding poverty and hunger.
Last month, Spain was caught off guard when as many as 10,000 people, mainly youths, surged into Ceuta as Moroccan border guards looked the other way.
The incident occurred during a diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco over the presence of the ailing leader of Western Sahara’s independence movement at a Spanish hospital, with the border breach widely seen as a punitive move by Rabat.
Although the Polisario leader left Spain on June 2, diplomatic relations have remained tense.
Moroccan security forces “cooperated actively” during Monday’s rush on the border to prevent migrants from entering Melilla, according to the Spanish government’s delegation in the territory.
Dozens of migrants rush border into Spain’s Melilla enclave
https://arab.news/ngcun
Dozens of migrants rush border into Spain’s Melilla enclave
- Migrants routinely try to enter Melilla and Ceuta, Spanish territories near the Moroccan border
- "A total of 119 people got in, all of them men," said a Spanish government's spokesman
Norway launches probe of Middle East diplomat and husband over Epstein links
- Mona Juul resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq
- Juul and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen played key roles in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords
OSLO: Norwegian police said Monday they have launched an “aggravated corruption” investigation against a high-profile diplomat, Mona Juul, and her husband Terje Rod-Larsen, over the couple’s links to late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The police economic crime unit Okokrim said in statement that the probe began last week and that an Oslo residence was searched on Monday, as well as a residence belonging to a witness.
“We have launched an investigation to determine whether any criminal offenses have been committed. We are facing a comprehensive and, by all accounts lengthy investigation,” Okokrim chief Pal Lonseth, said.
Juul, 66, and Rod-Larsen, 78, played key roles in the secret Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which led to the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.
Epstein left $10 million in his will to the couple’s two children, according to Norwegian media.
“Among other things, Okokrim will investigate whether she received benefits in connection to her position,” the statement said.
On Sunday, the foreign ministry announced that Juul had resigned from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq.
“Juul’s contact with the convicted abuser Epstein has shown a serious lapse in judgment,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in connection to the announcement.
She had already been temporarily suspended last week pending an internal investigation by the ministry into her alleged links to Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
Norway’s political and royal circles have been thrust into the eye of the Epstein storm, including the CEO of the World Economic Forum Borge Brende.
Former prime minister Thorbjorn Jagland, is also being investigated for “aggravated corruption” over links to Epstein while he was chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee — which awards the Nobel Peace Prize — and as secretary general of the Council of Europe.
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has also come under scrutiny for her relationship with Epstein, which on Friday she said she “deeply regretted.”
On Monday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store voiced support for the establishing of an independent commission set up by Parliament, to fully examine the nature of the ties between these figures and Epstein.
