RABAT: A Moroccan court imposed 8-month prison sentences Thursday on 14 migrants for attempting, along with hundreds of others, to scale a border fence separating the north African country from the autonomous Spanish enclave of Melilla in June.
Nador’s Court of First Instance also ordered the defendants to pay 2,000-dirham ($194) fines each over the events of June 24.
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights, known as AMDH, said at least 27 migrants trying to enter Spain died that day, and numerous others — both migrants and police — were hurt.
The AMDH condemned the decision which is described as “very harsh against people who only seek refuge.”
The same court sentenced 33 migrants to 11 months in prison last month after they tried to climb the border wall between Morocco and Melilla, also on June 24.
The trial of 28 additional immigrants from Sudan, Chad, Yemen, and South Sudan who were detained after the scaling attempt was postponed by the Nador Court of Appeal to August 17, due to the absence of witnesses.
Moroccan court jails 14 migrants for 8 months over crossing
https://arab.news/brtp5
Moroccan court jails 14 migrants for 8 months over crossing
- AMDH condemned the decision as “very harsh against people who only seek refuge.”
UN warns of environmental hazards from Middle East war
- Several oil facilities in Iran were targeted by Israeli strikes Sunday, and Iran has also launched strikes on oil facilities in the region
UN chief Antonio Guterres’s office warned Monday of “serious environmental consequences” from recent strikes on oil facilities and desalination plants in the Middle East, saying they pose significant threats to air quality and drinking water.
“We continue to raise the alarm over the humanitarian impact of escalating violence across parts of the Middle East, which is driving rising civilian casualties, damage to civilian infrastructure and growing displacement of people,” the secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press conference.
He added that the United Nations was “particularly concerned by the number of reports of recent strikes on oil facilities, which could have serious environmental consequences across the region, with immediate possible impacts on safe water, on air that people need to breathe, and on food.”
Bahrain’s interior ministry had said Sunday that an Iranian drone attack also damaged a water desalination plant, which is essential infrastructure for the country’s economy and drinking water supplies.
“We reiterate again that all possible precautions must be taken to protect civilians from the impact of hostilities and to avoid damage to health facilities, schools, water systems and other essential infrastructure,” Dujarric said.
Several oil facilities in Iran were targeted by Israeli strikes Sunday, and Iran has also launched strikes on oil facilities in the region.
