Image of the migrants and refugees who were stacked by Moroccan agents on an esplanade next to the border post.AMDH-NADOR (Europa Press)
A BBC report offered this Tuesday a reconstruction of what happened on June 24 when at least 23 migrants and refugees died trying to cross the Chinatown border post, between Nador and Melilla.
Most of the conclusions of the British chain – such as the participation of Moroccan agents on Spanish soil or the hot returns – are not new, but the team of journalists points out the responsibility that the Spanish authorities also had in the tragedy with some information new.
More information
What happened at the Melilla border?
The step by step of the tragedy
The documentary shows a video that circulated on social networks to explain that the avalanche that occurred left victims on the Spanish side.
In these images, dozens of people are seen huddled together without being able to move.
They are on both sides of the door that separates the limit between Spanish and Moroccan competition, as confirmed by agents of the Civil Guard to the BBC.
The report adds that in a video that the chain assures that it verified, but that it does not publish in full because it is “too graphic”, it is seen that there are bodies in the area that, according to what the guards told them, is land controlled by the Spanish.
The Moroccan police, according to the BBC, dragged part of them from the Spanish side to the Moroccan.
The Ministry of the Interior denies this and has described as "disappointing" that the British chain makes "such serious" accusations without providing "any evidence".
"No one has disputed that the deaths took place on the Moroccan side of the fence," ministry sources added.
Another question asked by the BBC is whether the Spanish authorities could see what was happening at the border post.
According to the BBC, the Civil Guard could observe what was happening thanks to the cameras of a drone, a helicopter and the border itself, which were monitored in real time from the Melilla Civil Guard control center.
The violence exerted by the Moroccan police, who fired tear gas at the migrants in a closed space and hit them with their batons when they were already on the ground, is another of the events highlighted by the chain, something already known thanks to the videos that They were spreading that day on social networks.
“If you moved, they hit you, if you said something, they hit you,” says one of the Sudanese interviewed for the documentary.
"We couldn't breathe," says another.
Also, that the Civil Guard fired rubber bullets at a part of the group that was hanging from the fence on the Spanish side, a scene that a union of civil guards had already disclosed on Twitter.
Some Sudanese who survived that day have recounted their experience on television.
"I hope our voice is heard," says one of them, seconds later covering his face with both hands and starting to cry.
"I survived that day but I can't say I'm alive today."
In this case, there are still unanswered questions.
The BBC questions the fate of the 70 people who, according to the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, disappeared that day and wonders what happened to the dead, whose number is probably higher than the 23 officially recognized by Morocco and who, even today, are It is unknown what they died of and if they were buried.
After the publication of the report, the president of the United We Can parliamentary group in Congress, Jaume Asens, has asked in a tweet for an investigation and for the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to rectify it.
“The Melilla massacre was a shame and the Interior broke the law.
He even said it to the UN or the Ombudsman.
Today, also the BBC.
Marlaska must rectify and the PSOE stop blocking, with VOX and PP, the Congress investigation.
We demand truth, justice and reparation,” her post read.