Really!!! How high can you jump for the beautiful life?

by iosaf Fri Sep 30, 2005 03:06

the 5 dead did not die from injuries sustained in falls or barbed wire.

They were shot.

The guardia civil blame the moroccan police and vice versa. The argument between the guards on both sides is to be "settled" by a joint inquiry / investigation according to Spain & Morocco.

The government man (head) of the melilla enclave
has said that since since 1998 there have been 5 "avalanches" or "mass trespass" or "loads (more than 350) of people going over at the same time". This last month has seen two of these incidents.

There have been since 1998 a total of 25 attempts to cross the walls. 15,000 migrants involved.

Spain says that the EU is not doing enough and is to raise common border issues (again) at the next summit.

the Spanish say the moroccans have stopped 23,000 migrants this year of whom 17,000 were "sub-saharan". I'm not sure if that includes "saharans". Sticky one that. c/f
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70928
I sort of get the feeling looking at this, that these people though not getting jobs, or even a decent home, are better off in a tent in Melilla with a blanket and some doctors around. Not meaning Morocco is an unpleasant place to be an unwanted migrant. I don't know. I did know someone once who outstayed their visa and went to Melilla thinking they could re-enter Morocco as they had been in Spain and get a new visa, and the moroccans wouldn't let them "they had never left", it caused them problems for while and adventures. Northern europeans have adventures.
Sub-saharans get shot at.

Spain has divided its new army troops (to support the "overworked" guardia civil) between Ceuta (the other enclave) and Melilla 250 troops each.

morocco has comitted 1000 more troops to Ceuta and 240 to Melilla it has a total of 7000 troops watching the border now.

The moroccan premier has agreed with spain about the EU promises promises thing, and says that its about time all of europe came up with solutions and --- all of the maghreb.

This can go many different ways. All of them have "delicate" written on all the signposts.

Without hyperbole this is the most interesing border crises allbeit provoked by a "third party" (distinct to either state of the frontier) in recent history.

there are still just under 40 of the last wave of migrants in serious medical condition (recovering from surgery).
_______________________________________
I'll update tomorrow.

by io Fri Sep 30, 2005 13:12

more a clarification.
There are 2 enclaves in question here. The story broke with 500 going over the wall into Melilla (double barbed wire fences at around 3 metres) the last incursion with 5 deaths was in Ceuta (most of the border is 6 metres but one short stretch at Finca Berrocal is around 3 metres).

The spanish legion army regiment are at both enclaves now.

Around 120 improvised ladders have been collected these are made in the forests closeby to both enclaves. It seems once Melilla's security went up with the 500 entry this week, the desperate made their way to Ceuta to try to get in. Ceuta at 18.5 km (has been spanish since 1415) is slightly larger than Melilla with a registered population of 74,000 just over Melilla.

It too has internment & processing camps.

The Moroccans are adament that migration from the rest of Africa is causing them more economic damage and social problems than Europe. They are a very poor country and with even more poor people using them as a gateway their problems are being compounded.

They say Europe has broken its promises to assist them. Which it has. Northern europe in particular is not dealing with the human, moral, ethical, legal, economic, social problems of migration. We can remember what happened in France this summer
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72013
Ignoring these problems promotes racism and exacerbates social inequality in EU states.

The only solution to these problems which will work is the ending of African Poverty.
African Poverty will only end if Europe's leaders have the courage and backbone to spend the money "as one" they allow the richest corporations to take from the EU "as competetitors" on jobs in Africa. They must make these decision as one though. Nothing else will work. Sure morocco could be brought into the EU couldn't it? And an enormous wall built in the Sahara " as seen from space".

Solving Capitalism thus
will Solve Poverty
which will Solve Migration.
& the really good news is
we might stop climate change too.
ribbid.

by iosaf Sun Oct 02, 2005 15:28

I spent friday & saturday in the company of a friend from the Canarias and others from Peru. Geographically the volcanic archipelago if thought of as belonging to any continent, is african. On a good day when the air is clear and the ocean calm you can see the Sahara's coast from the mountain around which the seven islands are based.
From thence the italian columbus complete his journey of migration to the americas, and so peruvians speak the global language.

That coast you see if you look east from Canarias is that of the western Sahara. Where people have disputed their lives, rights, political development for so long. They went on hungerstrike this summer so that we would all notice them. They're on tube feeding now. We don't believe they wanted that. This last week the enclaves of Spain, Melilla and Ceuta saw their barbed wire fences, border walls and infra-red cameras crossed.
Those last castles won when the caliphate was conquered and people decided the nature of the pluri-national pillars of hercules.

The delicate and poor without shoes came to find a blanket and internment in the land where workers can't smoke in the factory & are arguing the subtleties of the right to die with dignity.

The people of the western Sahara protested the summit of Morocco and Spain last week by ripping up pictures of their king. The spanish king put on his uniform and kissed the flag on Saturday telling his troops that the constitution preserved the "indisoluble unity of Spain". From galicia on the atlantic to canarias in africa to catalonia in the pyrennes. He knows when to put on his uniform.
the PP took the podium of a forum on water for the poor farmers of the south of spain and screeched that the catalans with all their "inverted commas" will break the chain of castles defending España & €urope. Only the generally reliable "Libération" newspaper of France´s left has picked up on the story, "the mystery of sub-sahara". No-one else in the rich low tax north gives a damn or blessing.

250 spanish Soldiers are now walking the border in between the barbed wire fences of both Melilla and Ceuta. I've seen them, they're on tv.

So the desperate changed route.

At Grenada yesterday 96 were taken ashore, 17 of whom were children, 6 of whom were dead.

In Canarias a raft sank 30km offshore spanish helicopters are searching the ocean between the islands and the continent for survivors. 3 are safe, about 15 are missing soon to be presumed dead.

Another raft was luckier it made landfall last night with 37.

Meanwhile some of the migrants who entered Ceuta were shown on TV waving plastic spanish flags from the seats of a local basketball match.

* They have shoes now.
* They have eaten now and seen doctors & have a blanket each.
* They are interned and waiting for Europe to send them home to wherever this mysterious place called "sub sahara" is.

I wonder what happens there that so many people want to leave?

* Bless 'em for They are out of Morocco now.
* They have left the caliphate.

by & more Mon Oct 03, 2005 14:29

This time at the highest point of melilla's wall (just over 6 metres). Over 130 of them have been treated for cuts and minor injuries, 7 guardia civil (customs & border guards) have also been treated, one for a fracture to the skull.

They (the lost tribes of Sub Sahara) are obviously getting more desperate, this was the first incursion where stones were thrown at spanish border guards.

Almost two thousand have now left the _illegal_ tent village on mount Gurugú on the Moroccan side where people from Sub Sahara await their chance to enter Europe.

They now have shoes, food, a blanket and are :- "interned".

Never before in the history of peaceful relations between neighbouring states have so many chosen to jump a barbed wire fence and be interned.

by & more... Tue Oct 04, 2005 12:32

The residents of both Melilla and Ceuta have organised protests re-affirming their "spanish identity" through mobile text messages in the last 24 hours. Madrid has gurggled back at them "sure we know you're spanish, no doubt about that, spanish you are & spanish you're staying".

The Moroccans are arresting "illegal migrants" we are told on their side of the frontier. 196 of them have been bagged trying to get to "forever spain".

A TV documentary will air tonight on spanish tv, and I've been lucky enough to see some clips. One young man offered his thoughts before he was carried off to see a doctor on a makeshift stretcher which moments before had served as a ladder to get over the wall. He spoke english with the distinct accent of Ghana (which i believe is somewhere near Sub Sahara). I was intrigued to hear what he had said, we don't often listen to Sub Saharans on TV we just look at them.

He said he had been shot at, He said he had been hit many times on the head, he said he had been beaten, he said and i'll write it out :-
"Africa unite, someday africa will unite, and the Moroccans know what they are doing here, and the UN know what is happening here, and someday africa will unite". He sounded almost bitterly political, much too passionate for Europe.

They carried him off to be interned, noting that the migrants are displaying desperation never seen, turning a little bit violent indeed. As rightwing press reports :they seek "safety in numbers" as they come to the territory struggling "tooth and nail".

I widen my feedback, speak to those I normally don't ask for opinion, listening for what they (the lumpen right wing are saying. We concur for once - "something bad has happened out there on the road from Sub Sahara & no we don't have a notion what it was".

the man on the left is a Moroccan garda smart and true the man on the right is from sub sahara in his camp suit

by iosaf Wed Oct 05, 2005 15:17

at least 50 or 60 migrants were reported as crossing the frontier at Melilla last night, whilst moroccan airforce patrolled above. It is estimated that 500 made the attempt at around 6am local time. 16 so far have been confirmed as injured.

The Spanish airforce has called off the rescue search in the seas between Canarias and Western Sahara. thus 14 more presumed dead.

The vice-prime minister of Spain, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega today meets with the heads of government in both Ceuta and Melilla to discuss the concerns of their citizens and residents and the next steps. The residents of both enclaves have protested their "hispanidad" and want a secure border with Morocco. The double fence is now to be re-inforced along the whole perimeter with a third barrier.

The CETI (temporary housing shelter for migrants) {the internment centre for those who cross the frontier} in Melilla has been filled to capacity in the last two weeks. Last night 200 migrants could not find shelter there, or in the tent cities built by the International Red Cross and Spanish Army since last Thursday.

Both photos attached to this comment came from local mainland press in the south of Spain. The images of moroccan guards with migrant above came from the Moroccan press and were intended for moroccan consumption.

I hope you see the human dimension.

There is no place called Sub Sahara.
the Sahara is a desert.

On one side there live beyond a line of buffer states called "north africa" the richest arguably most socially advanced and just societies on earth.

On the other is found Africa.

the child was baptised in Ceuta yesterday, her mother brought her over the wall last thursday. Her father came over in July.

Moroccan police confirm the migrant camp at Ben Younnes (near Ceuta) has been cleared of non citizens.

by iosaf Fri Oct 07, 2005 14:13

the last 6 were shot by moroccan guards in the early hours of Thursday (yesterday). The gap between the fences is being filled with barbed wire to further impede any attempts to enter. A newspaper image of yesterday showed two who had managed to come over, running through the streets of Melilla at around 5am covered in blood.
They I suppose ran and ran, till they ran out of breath. The newspaper photographer didn't manage to convince the newspaper picture editor
to show the fifteen (?) twenty (?) half an hour later when they were "according to the law" brought to a police station, identified and returned.

The Spanish and Moroccan states have returned to a previous 1992 agreement "as an extra-ordinary measure" which sees automatic repatriation to Morocco of all illegal migrants who enter Ceuta and Melilla. They have already started, opening the gates and sending them back, baptised or not.
Less of the processing and tent building. The local governments of both enclaves are PP and "pressured" the central government to spend "a lot" of money (almost a pittance) on new processes to integrate the "good" migrants who didn't come over the fence. Accordingly friday's newspapers report "the frontier is normal".

The EU is to be pressured to fund the frontier with Europe and co-operate at international level with Morocco, build internment camps & speed the return of the africans to africa or at least to push the border (that you know doesn't exist) further into the silent desert where no-one hears you scream.

In 1992, morocco was much less of an "emergent democracy" than now.

Such progress has been made.

SOS racisme a NGO working closely on this case have made very serious allegations against Morocco; that africans are being brought to the border with Algeria and abandoned without food or water.

If you have read this article and comments you have seen just 2 weeks of how *your border* is policed in line with human rights, tolerance and fairness you might feel in your bones is the European way of life.

by iosaf Fri Oct 07, 2005 17:48

the same language that the africans speak.

"They have been brought to the desert and dumped without water and without food".

Both SOS racisme and Doctors without Frontiers
(whom i linked to in the article above) have put their evidence to both Spanish and Moroccan states and the public of the EU. At least 500 people whom we know we're in the state of Morocco waiting to enter the EU have been found on the Algerian side of the frontier. At least 24 have died of thirst.

Is this the final solution?
_____________________________________
read the link at the BBC in english:-

by iosaf - "relief" Sun Oct 09, 2005 14:06

Last night Morocco under international pressure (though it didn't get to Ireland beyond my articles) put into place a "rescue" operation on its southern roads.

The migrants who had previously been "allowed" to make their way home, (Morocco insists it was not a policy) have been gathered and returned to "accomodation" and more importantly food and water in the north.

This is the result of the report of MSF doctors without borders, and they were helped in this by the diplomatic staff of both Senegal and Mali, and the media at both commercial and other level.
Mali and Senegal count many of the africans who have these last weeks come to our attention, as their journeys sometimes of more than a year, brought them through frying pans to fire to desert to...

wherever they are now.

In the meantime Spain has decided not to repatriate automatically migrants to Morocco (at the insistance of the residents of Ceuta and Melilla). I believe the reasons are a doubt that Morocco is infrastructurally (or morally) capable of guaranteeing the safety of European "rejects".

We can go many ways on this.
all are signposted "difficult".

Why is Turkey talking about joining Europe with its Iraqi borders, and Morocco the principle entry point of the poorest, itself with 40%+ illiteracy - isn't? [for one].
Why is the *EU* routinely expelling migrants who proceed from famine and war zones, without any assurance that they will be given food, water and shelter?
Why is that only the "border" states of the EU and the largest migrant centre states take an interest in migrant affairs?

by yawn gurggle & ribbid - jayxhus mammy we're globalised. Sat Oct 15, 2005 00:18

Neither Nigeria nor Cote d'Ivoire are co-operating with Moroccan initiative to fly home migrants.

& now I'd like you to progress up a level of geo-political awareness.

Mauritania was expelled from the African Union, the deposed president of Mauritania is in Nigeria presently after Moroccan diplomatic pressure.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=71288 if we consider the root causes of such migration are poverty, war and state instability or corruption. & we know that it takes a long time for migrants to jump.

The desert "dump/return" figures for Moroccan / Algerian frontiers have gone down. But "lost" migrants are now being observed in Western Sahara heading towards Mauritania, and in the former French nuclear test zone desert. What maybe thought of as curious is ; the rate the stranded migrants in the desert were found was directly linked to their ownership of mobile phones and the extent of the coverage offered.

you see? we get back to satelites and 4wheel drives.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69199


The EU meets AU will be interesting.
I'll be a fly on the wall. intepretung for ye.

Every migrant that goes back will have a story to tell and it will be told and listened to for generations to come. i can't interpret them.

by iosaf Fri Aug 11, 2006 11:38

This was one of the articles I wrote to highlight migration to the EU in the summer of 2005.

I'm pinging it today with good reason :- a slum neighbourhood of the Italian city Paduva has been surrounded in a wall, & now those that live in there have to jump 3 metres to do whatever it is mostly illegal migrants addicted to hard drugs do. http://indymedia.ie/article/77839
Or else they could stay at home and watch telly... The people who live in that complex are almost all "illegal migrants". I presume their living conditions without even considering the drug issue are somewhat similar to those "illegal migrants" found themselves in in France last year - when their children died in fires. A series of events which I directly linked to the eventual "clichy sous bois riots".
(c/f http://indymedia.ie/article/71693 http://indymedia.ie/article/72013
http://indymedia.ie/article/72750 http://indymedia.ie/article/72821http://indymedia.ie/ar...72995 I finished that series by declaring the whole issue was sourced in oppression.)

In this article of this summer :- http://indymedia.ie/article/77779 I I am exploring the theme of migration to Europe in the summer of 2006 & its underlying forces. I feel most readers have now managed to "dot the dots" & realise a few things about our world. A globe which daily sends thousands of the most poor to a life of little better than slavery in Europe is also the one in which Irish teenagers get killed in suicide bomb attacksd in Turkey - & other Irish tourists a few weeks later "miraculously" survive the bombing of Egypt's resorts.

This year 2006 is the first year that military (naval) inter-state EU forces deployed in national waters of our neighbouring states and migrants washed up on tourists beaches - malnourished, thirsty, some dead - all desperate.

You all know why they come. We are rich & we have food & to be quite frank outside of the fortress of Europe life is shit. Most western tourists never travel the ecologically wasted mid Asia. Nor do they stray far from bars and trusted friendly locals of Havana to mooch around the larder in most of South America. They may do India in a month but the reality of life for most of the sub-continent's people is too busy to photo or take in.

It's hard being at work in a sweat shop.

We have very serious problems, as Europeans as Westerners & a lot of apologising to do, because in a short generation we will have amassed more enemies than our science fiction foreign policies are capable of ignoring. I don't believe we can build enough walls to keep our fortress safe anymore.

Put your hands to the screen for verily
this is my endtime prophesy .:. * + @ / € = $ %