FRANCE 24
Many African migrants, like Danny (in the centre of the photo), regularly try to scale the three fences separating Morocco from Melilla. Screen grab from a video filmed by the NGO Prodein (Pro Derechos de la Infancia) on October 15.
A video has emerged showing police beating up African migrants at the Spanish border. About 200 African migrants who were trying to get into Melilla – a Spanish enclave in northwest Morocco – were reportedly beaten up by Spain’s Guardia Civil (police) on October 15.
Nearly all of them were then illegally sent back to Morocco.
The immigrants, who hail from Sub-Saharan Africa, had tried to get past the triple fence separating Morocco from the Spanish enclave at about 6 am. Two men were beaten particularly badly by the Spanish Guardia Civil, including one named Danny, aged 23, from Cameroon. On a video broadcast by Prodein, a children’s rights NGO, policemen can be seen beating the young man with their batons as he climbs down a ladder. After being beaten over the head, Danny falls to the ground. He is then dragged off by the police, apparently unconscious.
“The images could not be clearer or more appalling,” said Judith Sunderland, senior Western Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch, after viewing the film.
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