Melilla migrants likely died of ‘suffocation’: Moroccan probe
Rabat, Morocco – (AFP)
At least 23 migrants who died last month in a mass attempt to enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco likely “suffocated”, Morocco’s state-backed CNDH rights group said on Wednesday.
The death toll after around 2,000 people, many from Sudan, stormed the frontier on June 24 was the worst in years of attempted migrant crossings into Spain’s Ceuta and Melilla enclaves, which have two of the EU’s only land borders with Africa.
Adil El-Sehimi, a doctor who examined the bodies during a CNDH fact-finding mission, said the migrants had most likely died of “mechanical asphyxiation”, when a force or object prevents a person from breathing.
CNDH chief Amina Bouayach said 23 migrants had died in the incident, confirming the official toll.
Spanish rights group Caminando Fronteras says as many as 37 people lost their lives.
The United Nations, the African Union and independent rights groups have denounced the use of excessive force by Moroccan and Spanish security personnel.
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