Spanish soldiers filmed beating migrants who arrived from Morocco in Sebta
Several videos filmed in Sebta show Spanish soldiers chasing and beating migrants who arrived from Morocco. The government has now condemned the footage and announced an investigation to identify the soldiers involved.
The footage was collected and verified by elDiario.es. In one video, two soldiers chase a young man near the El Príncipe neighborhood and the Loma Colmenar camp. Once they catch him and throw him to the ground, they hit him several times with batons.
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More soldiers then arrive and join in the violence. At least three blows are struck while the young man is already on the ground and surrounded. Another video shows migrants being pushed into a ditch and then beaten. A voice then calls out to the soldiers: “Don’t go too far.”
The footage is believed to have been filmed between late August and mid-September. It shows members of the army intervening directly in the streets of Sebta, even though soldiers do not have the police, public security or law enforcement powers assigned to the national police and the Guardia Civil.
Another incident was filmed near Trampolín beach. Two soldiers are seen hitting a young Moroccan man with their batons as he curls up on the ground. According to five witnesses interviewed by the Spanish outlet, the soldiers stopped beating him when they realized someone was filming them. One of them looks at the camera, kicks the young man one last time and then gets into a military vehicle.
Three migrants had already been hospitalized
These videos confirm accounts gathered a few days earlier from around twenty migrants. Several said they had been chased, beaten or humiliated by soldiers patrolling Sebta. On 11 September, three young men with injuries including wounds to the head, face and ribs had to be taken to hospital.
The Spanish government announced an internal investigation on 17 September. At the time, the Ministry of Defence was still telling RTVE that it had “no evidence.” After the new videos were released, Moncloa expressed its “utter dismay” and condemned the violence. The Ministry of Defence declined to answer elDiario.es’s questions about the filmed scenes.
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The army has maintained a massive presence in Sebta since the arrivals on 30 and 31 July. As of 22 September, 4 163 soldiers had been deployed there and had carried out 7 500 surveillance patrols, according to the Spanish government.
