Spanish PM, Pedro Sanchez, blames ‘Mafia’ for human trafficking after African migrants deaths at Morocco/Melilla border
The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, has blamed the death of over 20 African migrants at the Morocco/Melillah border while trying to cross to Europe, on a “Mafia” trafficking syndicate.
The incident which happened late on Friday, saw a violent and fatal border incursion on the Moroccan border with the Spanish north African enclave of Melilla, leading to the deaths and injury to scores of Spanish and Moroccan officers injured.
While speaking on the incursion at a press conference in Madrid on Saturday, Sanchez said:
“If there is a party responsible for everything that happened on the border, it is the mafias that traffic in human beings.
“It was an attack on the territorial integrity of our country.
“The tactics of migrants trying to get into Melilla have changed. Before now, they used to spread along the whole length of the fence. Now they concentrate on the part where they think it is weakest,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez who paid tribute to officers on both sides of the border for fighting off “a well-organised, violent assault,” called on more stringent measures to be taken to avoid a future occurrence.