BBC Investigation Implicates Spain in Deadly Melilla Border Incident

The BBC documentary estimates that the Moroccan forces cooperated with the Spanish forces as part of this action against the migrants, stressing that the two forces would in fact be responsible for the violence and deaths recorded, reports La Dépêche. The BBC mentions "rubber bullet shots at close range" by the Spanish forces, showing in a video "at least one dead on the ground at the entrance" of the border post of Melilla under Spanish control as well as "other lifeless bodies taken out of there by the Moroccan security forces".

In another video published in the documentary, we see several injured or dying migrants lying on the ground, under the surveillance of the Moroccan forces who would have managed to push back 450 migrants and "beaten migrants until they fainted", without any reaction from the Spanish border guards. Revelations that contradict the official Spanish positions and therefore raise a lively controversy, especially since Pedro Sanchez had assured in September that the migrants had been killed on Moroccan territory.

The unanimity is not made either on the number of deaths. The UN Human Rights Council counted 37, while the Moroccan Association of Human Rights, 27. In its documentary, the BBC mentions for its part 24 dead and 77 missing, and accuses Spain of not revealing "crucial" surveillance camera videos to slow down the investigation. "This report is a major blow to the official version of the facts," said Jaume Asens, chairman of the Spanish parliamentary group Podemos.

"We must go all the way and our first demand is the viewing of these images, here within the Chamber of Deputies, and the urgent appearance of the [Interior] Minister," insisted Cuca Gamarra of the Popular Party, the main Spanish opposition party. In a statement dated November 2, the Spanish Ministry of the Interior considered it "disappointing and surprising that accusations of such gravity are made without any evidence", reaffirming that the Spanish guards had acted "in a proportionate and lawful manner".