five more migrants die in ceuta

29.Sep.05 - In the night of the 28th about 500 subsaharians immigrants tried to cross in masse the border between Marocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. 5 of them died. Initially police said that they only used riot measures and that the dead must have died from injuries caused by the fences but now is revealed that they were shot with live ammunition.

Spanish police confirmed yesterday that the immigrants who died crossing the border into Ceuta the night before were shot at with live ammunition and not plastic bullets as it was initially claimed. The spanish authorities do however insist, that the shots came from Moroccan police, and where not fired by their own personel. (the area where this happened is guarded in one side by Moroccan police and in the other by the Spanish police, in the middle there is a corridor between the fences, 3 of the immigrants died on Moroccan side and 2 in the Spanish side, but according to Spanish police, by wounds from Moroccan bullets). Today the newspaper El Pais reports that the official Moroccan news agency assures that according to 'a credible police source' and 'fellow immigrants' those dead died from 'shots from the spanish side'.

Zapatero (the Spanish president) has said that an enquiry should now be done about the events yesterday in Ceuta where 5 immigrants died and many others were wounded trying to cross the fence separating Morocco from Ceuta (Ceuta is one of two cities that the Spanish state still holds in north Africa). National NGOs have denounced violation of human rights at this border

Attempts to cross the border by hundreds of immigrants have been unusual so far. In the past migrants have attempted to enter the enclaves in very small groups. Prior to attempting the crossing the migrants set up camps in the forest on the Moroccan side, hidden among the bushes, where they sometimes stay for months until they undertake the final part of their long voyage to enter the European Union.