Spain’s Popular Party Demands Investigation into Melilla Border Tragedy

Ana Vázquez is one of the deputies who went to Melilla on Monday to get more information on what happened on June 24 at the border with Morocco. "In Melilla, we discovered three lies that Marlaska had told. The first is that the maximum number of Civil Guards deployed was a hundred, against 2,000 migrants trying to enter. The second is that there were Moroccan police on Spanish soil. And the third is that there were lifeless bodies on Spanish territory. In the images, it is impossible to know their true condition," she said in an interview with Vozpopuli.

For the moment, the official Moroccan sources speak of 23 dead migrants, the NGOs of 72 and the BBC documentary of 94, including the missing. "There are big questions to be answered. Marlaska refuses to say the number of dead. He says there was an early warning from Morocco to respond to the avalanche, but there wasn’t: Morocco called five minutes earlier! The close collaboration that the government boasts of does not exist. There is a superiority of Morocco over Marlaska and Sanchez. I don’t know if it’s because of Pegasus or why. But the truth is that our government intends to hide the actions of Morocco on Spanish soil," accuses the PP deputy.

And she adds: "Marlaska said he was going to set up a smart border with facial recognition. But what needs to be strengthened are material and human resources. The government is not trying to solve the problems that exist at the southern border when they know it is the weakest. In 2018, the number of Civil Guards assigned to Melilla was 594, and as of January 1, 2022, it was 599: only five more agents. This is not defending the border."

The deputy is convinced that the Spanish government "intends to cover up a scandal with another. The prosecution continues to demand videos, just like the Ombudsman. This is inconceivable. [...] At the moment, all parliamentary procedures are open. If Marlaska does not resign, we will make decisions in the political sphere. We do not rule out the option of a commission of inquiry or anything else."