A spokesperson for the Spanish authorities’s workplace in Melilla mentioned about 2,000 individuals tried to enter the town however many have been stopped by Spanish Civil Guard police and Moroccan forces on the opposite aspect of a border fence.
Those that succeeded in crossing went to an area migrant centre, the place authorities have been evaluating their circumstances.
Round 130 migrants have breached the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Friday within the first such incursion because the international locations mended diplomatic relations final month.
A number of migrants and law enforcement officials have been injured.
Folks fleeing poverty and violence generally make mass makes an attempt to succeed in Melilla and the opposite Spanish territory on the North African coast, Ceuta, as a springboard to continental Europe.
Spain usually depends on Morocco to maintain migrants away from the border.
Over two days firstly of March, greater than 3,500 individuals tried to scale the 20ft barrier that surrounds Melilla and practically 1,000 made it throughout, in line with Spanish authorities.
Friday’s crossings have been the primary try since relations between Spain and Morocco improved in March after a year-long dispute centred on the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976.
Morocco loosened its controls round Ceuta final yr, permitting hundreds of migrants to cross into Spain. The transfer was considered as retaliation for Spain’s determination to permit the chief of Western Sahara’s pro-independence motion to be handled for Covid-19 at a Spanish hospital.
Tensions between the 2 international locations started to thaw earlier this yr after Spain backed Morocco’s plan to grant extra autonomy to Western Sahara, the place activists are searching for full independence.
