The BBC's Africa Eye program will broadcast this Tuesday a documentary called Death on the border ('Death on the border') that recounts the tragic attempt by 2,000 sub-Saharan migrants to jump the Melilla fence on June 24 and in the at least 24 people died. Although some organizations raise this figure to 37 people, such as the NGO Walking Borders, since there are more than 70 missing people.
'How Spain looked at how dozens of people were crushed to death on its border,' is how the BBC titled the article to present the report. The journalistic investigation has documented illegal pushbacks by the Spanish Police and the extreme violence of the Moroccan agents.
The public channel has offered a preview of the documentary in a thread through Twitter where it dismantles the versions of the Spanish and Moroccan authorities, who assured that the migrants had been violent and that they had made reasonable use of violence. Contrary to the official version, the BBC assures that the agents of the neighboring country came to drag lifeless bodies back to Morocco already in Spanish territory. In addition, more than 450 people arrived in Spanish territory to apply for asylum, but were detained and pushed back to Morocco, and some survivors have even claimed that Moroccan guards beat them unconscious.
The BBC accuses the Home Office of withholding crucial surveillance camera evidence from formal investigations, "where cameras focused on the border fence are monitored on giant screens." However, as the British chain recalls, the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, stated that 470 migrants were returned without taking into account the legal provisions and that the Ministry of the Interior had not shared all the available security cameras with the investigators. .
The BBC's Africa Eye team has reviewed dozens of videos to try to build the most complete picture of the tragic deaths of at least 24 people. After the broadcast of all the videos and the first information, United We Can has accused Minister Grande-Marlaska of breaking the law.
Compromís, the national partner of the Coalition for Melilla (CPM), has criticized that the Government of Spain has not made an assessment of the Ombudsman's report on the June 24 tragedy at the Melilla fence.
Its senator, Carles Mulet, explained this Tuesday that he registered a written question to the Government on October 15 after it was made public that "the Ombudsman refutes Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and concludes that the Interior violated the law during the tragedy in the fence of Melilla".
Mulet has exposed the first conclusions of Gabilondo and asked the Government if "the Minister of the Interior and the Government as a whole have already shown amply no sensitivity with the massacre of the Melilla fence". However, he criticizes that the Executive avoids assessing said report.
