Surge in Anti-Moroccan Hate Crimes Sparks Protests in Murcia, Spain

Two other cases of racist attacks against Moroccans have leaked out after the death of Younes Bilal. The first is that of Mimoun Koutaibi, a 22-year-old Moroccan, attacked on June 5 in the Primafrio company, located in Alhama de Murcia, where he works as an automotive mechanic. According to his family, he would have been hit twice in the back and head by an individual using an iron bar. He is currently in a coma at the Virgen de l’Arrixaca hospital, where he was operated on Wednesday, say relatives to El Pais who deplore the lack of attention paid to his case.

To read: Spain Protests Surge After Racist Murder of Moroccan Youth in Murcia

In a complaint filed with the Civil Guard, the latter provided proof of the racist nature of the act. "Apparently, the boss had fired his aggressor and told him: ’The Arab works better than you’. He then went to attack the Moroccan," they explain, adding that colleagues witnessed the scene which "must have been recorded by the security cameras of the company". For the moment, it is not known if the aggressor has already been arrested and detained.

The second case concerns a 40-year-old Moroccan, stabbed on Tuesday, June 22, in Cartagena. The police have opened an investigation to identify and arrest the alleged aggressor of this new attack and also to determine its nature and origin. The victim was taken to the Santa Lucía hospital. According to a spokesman for the town hall of the city, the data available to date do not make it possible to certify that it is a racist attack.

To read: Surge in Anti-Moroccan Hate Crimes Alarms Rights Groups in Spain

The reaction of the political authorities has not been up to the murder of Younes Bilal, unanimously described as a "racist crime". Unlike these political actors, those of civil society have launched calls to demonstrate in the Murcia region which has 222,000 migrants, mostly Maghrebians and Ecuadorians.

The coordinator of NGOs in Murcia has in turn alerted to the role of incitement to this type of aggression that xenophobic messages launched by the far-right party Vox, which obtained the majority of votes in the region in the last elections, can play.