Really!!! How high can you jump for the beautiful life?
international |
racism & migration related issues |
news report 
Thursday September 29, 2005 21:09
by iosaf
Today Spain and Morocco met at the highest level available to them to discuss as a matter of urgency, the events of the last month and week.
hundreds of migrants of sub-saharan origin attempt to cross the frontier between Morocco and the Spanish specifically in the tiny enclave of Melilla.
5 migrants have died (3 on the moroccan side 2 on the spanish side) in the last attempt which saw an estimated 500 migrants try to jump the Melilla wall on Wednesday of this week.
Doctors without frontiers claim 66% of the injuries sustained by the migrants resulted from their experiences on the Moroccan side.
Naturally : The borders of Europe begin where they are guarded. melilla is the border of the Dublin suburban mother of one driving the four wheel drive. Read on...
There has been an editorial article in the Washington Post with comparisons made to the Israeli apartheid wall, and the issue is taking main
pages in both Spanish and Moroccan newspapers, the spanish quality independent daily "El Pais" choosing as cartoon a play on the word "sub-saharan africa", it was a map of europe entitled "over-saharan africa".
The Spanish state have said its their responsibility to further fortify the border, and legally it is. And they don't have facilities for the migrants within.
Ponder that a moment, close to 500 extra spanish troops have been sent to Melilla in the day to erect a tent city to house those who have come over the fences in the last month.
They also accept their responsibility for the care of the migrants who have made it over the hurdles but they're not getting any further.
And hurdles they are. Long before these migrants got to Melilla they crossed the Sahara, minefields, barbed wire fences, Morocco polices "Europe's outer border".
There are now close to 300 children without parents housed in Melilla of sub-saharan origin.
The registered population is 60,000 approx.
They registed the lowest turn-out of any constituency in the EU for the vote on the constitution.
Melilla is a tiny enclave port, and an "integral part of Spain" since its invasion in 1493 and formal annexation in 1497. The modern day state of Morocco claims it, and regards it legally as their territory.
There are at present over 400 migrant orphan children housed there, and no room to put those who jump the fence. Morocco has joined the Spanish guardia civil in fighting off accusations of being nasty, whilst also trying to stem the flow.
There are already migrant camps which are full, and a migrant "processing centre" where people are kept indefinetly till their repatriation. The children will not be repatriated.
It doesn't make much sense as a migrant route.
To put it in Irish or British terms, you would not cross the desert and minefields and many thousands of kilometres looking for "freedom" or "jobs" in either the aran islands or scilly islands. Melilla doesn't have a daily boat service to Spain.
This situation may be understood as highlighting economic disparity which it does. It shows us the desperation which drives migrants, it highlights the injustice of our "legal frontiers".
But it also shows the wickedness of those who traffic in human beings. I suspect that many who who are throwing their makeshift ladders at the multiple barbed wire fences (and last night over 20 were seriously wounded) suspect they are entering Spain, that is to say "the outer suburbs of Madrid" and that London and bright lights and MTV are just a fast train ride away.
The answer so far seems to be to spend yet more money on teh border, raising the fences and installing motion detectors & infra-red on the whole perimeter.
The €uropean Union under the pro-Africa poverty proactive solution UK presidency expects Spain to protect the security of the four wheel drive suburban mother of one by investing in the building of internment camps "on the other side of the moat", to date more than 1,200,000,000€u has been directed to support camps in Algeria, Morrocco, Libya, Tunisia to the south and more to the east.
The €uropean union re-assures the concern for human rights that the fourwheel drive suburban mother of one, by routinely urging Algeria, Morrocco, Libya and Tunisia to adhere to the varying charters on human rights.
The border at the tiny enclaves of Ceuta and Malilla alone have cost 1,750,000,000€ to upgrade, the fence in Melilla is now to measure above 6 metres rather than 3, the ditch is now twenty metres wider, the concrete now goes deeper to stop tunnels being dug, and of course there is in full honour of European tradition a "no man's land", entry into which is detected immediately by infra-red sensors. That was the boast in early january 2005, but obviously the infra-red sensor companies hadn't put in enough tenders. There might be jobs yet for the poor of Ireland on the assembly lines.
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We may for the moment wonder if east europeans and in particular east berliners had been black, or illiterate, or so desperate would we have made such an investment on the security needed to keep them out.
Oh but of course that was different.
That was about liberty .:. & democracy.
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the last "how high can you jump for the beautiful life" with info on the beginning of this "story" in August and the events of the last week.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=71750
current news from the BBC please note that the photo of the crossing at the BBC is of the incident in early August, and is misleading. CCTV coverage has not been released for the last 72 hours.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4292490.stm
map of European internal and extra-jurisdiction interment camps for migrants
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69199&condense_comments=false#comment104056
(that article contains much info & was produced for the EU day of Struggle against internment camps in April 2005. If you find it hard to scroll, here's the start of the piece-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69199
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non governmental groups playing an active part in this issue.
http://www.msf.es/
(doctors without borders) they say 1 in 4 of the migrants seen in the last week have been injured, by "others".
The official version is the deaths were caused by ctampede crushes.
http://www.sosracisme.org/
anti racist group based in Catalonia for Spain in association with French group, reject the stationing of extra garrison of soldiers as a premption to violent reprisals.
http://www.migeurop.org/
Monitoring Europe's migrant detention, internment and expulsion camps.