The death in Morocco of at least 18 sub-Saharan migrants remained hidden for long hours on Friday morning.
It was known that at 6.40 in the morning the Civil Guard in Melilla was alerted by the Moroccan gendarmerie about a massive attempted assault on the border fence to enter Spanish territory.
The assault finally came around 8:30.
Some 1,500 migrants participated in the attempt and only 133 managed to cross the Chinatown border crossing.
It was the first massive assault since Morocco obtained in March from Pedro Sánchez the letter in which the president openly favored the Moroccan autonomy proposal for Western Sahara, to the detriment of the self-determination referendum demanded by the Polisario Front.
From the early hours of the morning until four in the afternoon there was an informative silence on the part of the Moroccan authorities, where no one knew for sure if there had been any deaths or how many there were.
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18 migrants killed and 63 injured in an avalanche while trying to enter Melilla
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), the most established in the country, at 2:00 p.m. had no confirmation that anyone had died.
It transpired that the emigrants had used violent methods.
And the organization itself, which has a long history in defense of migrants, made a public call for an end to violence by both migrants and the police.
But nothing else was known.
After noon, the newspaper
La Razón
published that 40 sub-Saharans and five Moroccan gendarmes had died.
But the Moroccan Interior Ministry neither confirmed nor denied anything.
"We are consulting our people on the ground," an authorized source told this newspaper.
As for the Spanish embassy in Rabat, most of the authorities and officials did not know anything either.
Suddenly, the rumor began to spread that "something" had happened on the border, something different from the previous massive assaults, where fatalities were almost never recorded.
And, finally, at 4:00 p.m. in Morocco, an hour later in mainland Spain, the Nador authorities issued a brief statement indicating that five irregular emigrants had died, killed by an avalanche in their attempt to gain access and also as a result of the fall from the fence.
In addition, they reported that there were 13 serious injuries among sub-Saharans and five serious injuries among the police.
Finally, at eleven o'clock at night, an authority from Nador declared that the 13 serious emigrants had died, with which the balance increased to 18. And he categorically assured that no gendarme lost his life.
The moment in which dozens of migrants try to cross the fence. Javier Bernardo (AP)
From that moment videos began to circulate, each one more moving.
The AMDH published several of them in which dozens of inert sub-Saharans were seen huddled together on the ground, without being able to distinguish very well who was alive and who was dead.
In another video, a riot police officer tries to lift a migrant who is lying motionless on the ground.
Seeing that he doesn't react, he tries to take her pulse first at her wrist and then at her neck.
Another agent applies the baton to the migrant's side and checks that he does not move.
In the midst of that mass of inert bodies, squashed at the foot of the fence, suddenly an emigrant manages to move an arm, and another one further on moves a leg.
Most sub-Saharans, however, remain motionless, watched by a line of riot police.
An official source familiar with the events told this newspaper on condition of anonymity: “The cause of death is that there was an avalanche.
And the strongest fell on the weakest.
This Saturday, the AMDH issued a statement together with other associations, such as the Spanish Walking Borders or Attac Maroc, where the death toll increased to 27 emigrants.
The Ministry of the Interior did not change the figure of 18. A local source in Nador reported at 3:30 p.m. – one more hour in mainland Spain – that two agents of the Moroccan security forces and 33 emigrants were still under medical control in the Hassani hospital, in Nador, and the university hospital in the city of Oujda.
And that the state of health of all of them is "stable".
The associations demanded an independent judicial investigation, "both on the Moroccan and Spanish sides, as well as on an international scale", to clarify the details of the tragedy.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have issued, also this Saturday, a statement in which they express their "deep sadness" and "concern" about the Melilla tragedy.
Both IOM and UNHCR have urged the authorities to prioritize the safety of migrants and refugees, refrain from excessive use of force and uphold their human rights.
"These violent events show more than ever the importance of finding lasting solutions," underline the international organizations in the statement, and also demand that the international community reinforce "access to safer alternative routes to mitigate the use of dangerous trips and thus reducing the risk of such tragic events happening again in the future”.
Along the same lines, Podemos regretted what happened this Saturday and demanded that the European Union carry out its own investigations “immediately and independently” to “clarify the facts and purge responsibilities.”
"Going over international law by selling, among others, the rights of the Saharawi people and trusting governments that systematically violate human rights, has consequences," said the party's International Secretariat in a statement that alludes, without citing it, to the turn of the PSOE regarding Western Sahara.
“Spain must rethink a policy of border externalization and blackmail by Morocco that generates so much violence and suffering.
When the dead are blond with blue eyes, everyone is clear about it, ”said the parliamentary spokesman for United We Can,
Paula Chousa.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, defended, also this Saturday —during the appearance in which he announced the new package of anti-crisis measures—, the actions of Morocco and has pointed out as “responsible” for the tragedy “the mafias that They traffic in human beings.”
“Yesterday, first I expressed my solidarity and vindicated the extraordinary work that the forces and bodies of the State are doing in our country, some of them civil guards who were injured as a result of the violent assault.
And I also want to repeat this description, violent, and organized by the mafias that traffic in human beings," said Sánchez, who reaffirmed himself in his statements on Friday, in which he defended that the Moroccan gendarmerie had "deeply committed to try to avoid violent assault.”