A man died after migrants attempted to climb the fence at the Spanish exclave of Melilla in North Africa. It was the largest group so far this year. The African man died of natural causes, a representative of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior in Melilla said on Thursday.
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About three hundred migrants attempted to cross the six-meter-high double border fence from Morocco on Wednesday morning at 6 am. In this way, they tried to reach Spanish territory by force, despite the opposition of the border police. About thirty of them succeeded, including the deceased man. The AP news agency writes that the man died of a heart attack and that the medical service could no longer resuscitate him.
Eight other migrants and three agents of the Guardia Civil, the Spanish police, were slightly injured. They too were treated by the local counselors.
The other people who tried to climb over the fence were stopped by the Moroccan security forces, the Spanish Ministry of Internal Affairs reports.
Exclaves
Spain has two exclaves in North Africa: Ceuta, on the Strait of Gibraltar, and Melilla, 250 kilometers to the east. Tens of thousands of Africans, mainly from sub-Saharan countries, are located near both areas, hoping for an opportunity to enter the European Union.
Presumably because of the corona pandemic, there have been fewer than usual attempts to climb the fences in recent months. In April, 200 more migrants attempted to climb over the fence. At least 1,383 migrants entered the two exclaves by land without permission in the first half of this year, according to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. That is 1,930 fewer than in the same period in 2019.
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