Families Demand Justice for Melilla Fishermen Killed by Moroccan Navy in 2013

Pisly’s father, Abdeslam Ahmed, said on the occasion that the two young men had been victims of the controls of the patrol boats of the Royal Moroccan Navy that boat owners in Melilla have been complaining about lately. Eight years after Emin and Pisly were shot dead, justice has still not found the perpetrators of this crime, neither in Spain nor in Morocco, denounce the parents of the two young people who demand justice and call on the Spanish government to take its responsibilities.

But raising this issue in the current context could undermine the good understanding regained between Spain and Morocco, after more than a year of diplomatic crisis, believes El Faro de Melilla, specifying that the problems with Morocco did not start in 2018 with the closure of the commercial customs of Beni Ensar, but rather in 2013 with the murder of Emin and Pisly which remains unsolved. The same source recalls the other measures taken by Morocco against Spain, in particular the cancellation of the Marhaba Operation in 2020 and 2021, the end of smuggling, the closure of borders and the installation of fish farms on the Chafarinas Islands.

Moreover, the tragedy of June 24 occurred, where 23 sub-Saharan migrants died among the hundred who tried to enter Melilla. And today, it is the owners of pleasure boats who are "harassed" by the Moroccan patrol boats. It seems that relations with Morocco are evolving from problem to problem, notes the same source, observing that Pedro Sanchez’s decision to welcome Brahim Ghali in Spain was a "mistake" for which he paid the price dearly by changing Spain’s position on the Sahara, also opening a new crisis with Algeria.