Migrant testimonies: murders in Nador, deportations to Sahara desert
rozaine | 10.10.2005 07:35 | Migration | Repression
This is a historical crisis, and all europeans are part of it, as it is the European space which is being defended and European policies of
externalization and militarizations which are being deployed. The situation is extremely urgent.
Follows the testimony by different migrants with explainations of last
days events, - collected by Helena M (in spanish):
Murders in Nador[1], deportations into Sahara desert
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I here send you a testimony which summarises and reflects the
viewpoint of the immigrants of Nador about the attempted entry to
Melilla. Officially, the marrocan authorities admit the existence of six dead people.
"At 2.30am (marrocan time), we arrived at the barbed wire fence. We saw four helicopters, it seemed as if three were spanish and one marrocan. We hadn't yet crossed the first barbed wire fence, and nobody had touched us...we had managed to get that far. They started to shoot at us at to tear-gas us. I saw two bodies drop at my side. The marrocan police had encircled us from the back and in front of us was the spanish police, some of them on marrocan territory. They shot at us from both sides, from the spanish as well as the marrocan side.
I myself have transported back one wounded, who had a bullet in his foot.
At the hospital in Nador, a wounded comrade of us saw seven bodies
arrive, which means there are seven dead people. In the local woods,
there are still many wounded which have not received medical attention. Here are also 32 wounded persons, most of them with wounds caused by bullets. There are broken legs and arms, and no aid from humanitarian organisations like 'medics without frontiers' has reached us since they keep us locked up completely. In the small marrocan shops where we buy food, they don't want to sell us food out of fear.
We did not attack thousand people, is it impossible?
There seems to be no way out of this situation. Before, when they 'fucked us' at least our lives were not in danger. Now they send you back to the sahara desert and you die. You have to choose between dying in the desert or being shot at the barbed wire fence."
-- L., C.
This comrade from Cameroon is right. Until this moment, there is no way to count the number of disappeared people, but we know that from Saturday until Wednesday of this week, 60 busses with each between
40-60 people have been deported to a desert zone which forms the border between Algeria and Marroco.
The different groups we contacted told us about 36 dead people and an
undetermined number of disappeared people.
Potentially, all africans are worried about these deeds, and in the countries of origin, they speak about it all day on tv and radio. In subsaharan africa, they call it genocide and hunt on black people.
We confirmed that effectively, there are at least around 30 asylum seekers that have been deported. We were able to talk to three citizens, one from Cameroon and one from Senegal whose had proper papers for the state of marroco.
We confirmed that at least ten women with babies and around 50 women
who said to be pregnant have been deported.
The issue of these women worries us especially since they are most
vulnerable, thinking about the violence, also sexual violence, which might have been used against them during the deportations as well.
One of the testimonies we received explains and summarises the proceedings of the deportation carried out by the marrocan authorities.
"I was in Spain. The night we planned to enter Ceuta. I had passed the
two barbed wire fences and was confronted by the Guardia Civil, which
made me return with an unbelievable brutality, one I had never imagined to experience in a democratic country. They handed me over to the marrocan military together with 155 persons who were alright and 20 plus people of various injuries. They were all shooting real bullets, the marrocans and the spanish, the spanish when we were on the fences and the corpses dropping. I remember the dead ones and I die within, too.
The marrocan authorities brought us to the city of Oujda[2], as always.
When I arrived there, I saw many many africans coming from other
places in Marroco. I saw many with asylum papers issued by the UNHCR
stating that they were under temporary protextion of the United
Nations.
I also saw many comrades that had an entry visa for Marroco or a entry
stamp in their passport that had not expired yet.
I saw many women and babies, I saw many pregnant women.
They put us into busses. I thought they would bring us to the border
twenty kms from Oujda as always. We were 14 busses, but they were
driving to the south, I calculated a distance of about 600 kms.
Then, the busses stopped and military trucks and jeeps arrived. They
seperated us into small groups and brought us into the desert.
There they left us, without food nor water.
In the distance, there were lights, and the marrocans told us they
were from Algeria. We marched all night towards the lights, some of us
reached them and we saw that they were a algerian military camp. The
soldiers gave us water and food. More and more people arrived, but
some never did. We lost them in the desert.
I swear that those who didn't arrive died in the desert for real.
The algerians didn't maltreat us in that moment. They moved us and
showed us the way in order not to bump into the marrocan military camp which transported us in jeeps/trucks.
The problem is that if they see you again, the marrocan soldiers will deport you again and you start at square zero.
There were deportations of injured people, with broken legs, who couldn't walk and were left in the desert.
We don't think about us who are alright but about those who remained
in the desert. We plead to search them with helicopters, the hours run."
[1] Nador
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Nador city, northeastern Morocco in the Rif. The city is a small Mediterranean port on the Bou Areg Lagoon and a trading centre for fish, fruits, and livestock. It is linked to the Spanish plaza (North African enclave) of Melilla, 9 miles (15 km) north, by road and railway.
[2] Oujda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Oujda is a city in eastern Morocco with an estimated population of half a million inhabitants. The city is located about 15 kilometers west of Algeria and about 60 kilometers south of the Mediterranean Sea
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A summary report of the situation from BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/4322026.stm
The expulsion starts, hundreds on deportation lists and news of illegally
deported individuals being left in the desert with no access to food, water or humanitarian aid.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4322472.stm
Médecins Sans Frontières report on 500 refugees left in the desert
http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=CB96C938-E018-0C72-09798CE0BD3E6548&component=toolkit.pressrelease&method=full_html
An interesting Médecins Sans Frontières report about the sources of
violence targeting the economic refugees
http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/invoke.cfm?objectid=A6F3F482-E018-0C72-096DD202421D8CE9&component=toolkit.pressrelease&method=full_html
The BBC news-report about the six migrants shot by the border police on
the 6th of October http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4316702.stm
PHOTO GALLERY from BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4287330.stm
rozaine
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