Spanish Prosecutors Probe Alleged Violence Against Moroccan Migrants in Ceuta

Reacting to the accusations of violence against Moroccan migrants expelled in the wake of the migration crisis in Ceuta last week, the Spanish prosecutor’s office has ordered an investigation to clarify the facts.

Videos circulated in Ceuta showed law enforcement officers beating migrants on the beach, firing tear gas at them on the beach and on the Moroccan side. The same videos show that the security forces maintained pressure on the migrants, beating them at night, in the neighborhoods and in the streets of Sebta.

Moroccans on the spot claim to have seen Spanish police and soldiers firing rubber bullets. "They shot at us with weapons I’ve never seen in my life," accused one of them.

Other Moroccans say that one of his friends was sprayed with a kind of powder while others would have been injured by police who hit them with metal cords without distinction between men and women, young or children.

"They sprayed women carrying babies with gas like pesticides. They treated us like insects," one of the Moroccans was outraged. In addition to acts of violence, the videos also showed that the Civil Guards sent the minors back through the border posts, in violation of Spanish laws and international treaties on the matter.

While some sources speak of 1,600 children, the Red Cross says 800 minors crossed the border on the Spanish side, out of the 8,000 migrants of all ages.

A contingent of more than 150 soldiers was deployed in Sebta to reinforce the equally large number of law enforcement officers present. Tanks and military vehicles were sent in front of the beaches from which hundreds of migrants were swimming, some suffering from hypothermia. Facing them, armed Guardia civil and other military personnel who welcomed them with blows, denounce human rights activists.