More than 2,500 migrants have tried to enter Spain through the Melilla border fence in the last two days. Despite the fact that the Government Delegation has denounced the use of “extreme violence” by migrants, some images from Spanish Television show, on the contrary, a brutal beating by police officers of a young man when he was hanging down from the fence on the Spanish side, completely defenseless.
The video is recorded during the day yesterday, when dozens of immigrants again tried to enter through the border. In the images, a young man appears who has managed to cross over to the Spanish side of the fence and slowly lowers himself, before the eyes of several Police and Civil Guard agents. When he gets up to his outstretched arms, some of the officers start gassing him and hitting him with batons on his legs.
The young man refuses to go down, but ends up falling to the ground, where about a dozen agents reduce him and beat him with batons and shields for at least 30 seconds, according to what can be seen in the video, despite the fact that the person it is completely unarmed, until they manage to reduce it.
📺 These last two days in #Melilla with the two jumps to the fence they are leaving us images how are you. @rtvenoticias pic.twitter.com/baATJZA8zt
— RTVEMelilla (@RTVEMelilla) March 3, 2022
In the rest of the videos that Televisión Española has published, you can see the extensive deployment of police officers deployed in Spanish territory at the foot of the fence. The Ministry of the Interior announced on Wednesday a reinforcement of the presence of the Civil Guard and the National Police in the border perimeter of the autonomous city due to the influx of people who tried to cross the fence between Wednesday and Thursday.
After the entry on Wednesday of 491 immigrants of the 2,500 who tried, in the early hours of the next morning about 1,200 have wanted to do so, but only about 380 have succeeded, according to the EFE agency.
According to the information provided to that agency by the Government Delegation, the migrants “have displayed extreme violence, throwing stones and using hooks and sticks against the security forces.” That violence cannot be seen in the RTVE images. On the contrary, the police officers beat the migrant down when he is defenseless and continue the violence when the young man is already immobilized on the ground.
The two jumps have come after two relatively quiet months on the fences. Between January and February, 57 immigrants entered Melilla by land, which represents a decrease of 112% compared to the same period in 2021 (169 people), according to the latest immigration balance from the Ministry of the Interior.
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, affirmed this Friday that the jumps occurred with “unusual violence” by the immigrants and has shown his solidarity with the “more than 50 civil guards who have been injured.”
“More than 2,500 people tried to jump the fence with unusual violence, with hooks and defenses larger than those of the police and civil guards”, he stated today at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, before indicating that this morning has produced another jump attempt of more than 1,000 people. Marlaska, who has not commented on the images, has recognized the “very important work” of the Civil Guard on the borders of Spain, which, he has said, “are the borders of Europe.”
www.eldiario.es