100 immigrants enter Melilla after scaling border fence en masse

Around a hundred immigrants arrived in Melilla on Tuesday after 300 sub-Saharan Africans organized a massive jump of the border fence. They entered around four in the morning in the northern zone between Mariguari and Rostrogordo, police said.

There have been no reported injuries, neither among the immigrants nor the security forces that responded to the incident. However, the Spanish government’s delegate in Melilla, Abdelmalik El Barkani, said at a press conference that the immigrants stormed the fence “very aggressively.” He also claims they threw stones at Moroccan security forces, who, along with the Civil Guard, detained some of the migrants who didn’t make it to the Spanish exclave on the North African coast.

A Civil Guard helicopter, which has been stationed in Melilla for several weeks to assist with surveillance, has joined the government security operation to detain undocumented immigrants.

The government has warned that the the migrarory pressure on Melilla is permanent

This is the first massive border crossing in recent weeks, although sources reported sightings of groups of migrants who hadn’t yet reached the fence. For months, the government has warned that the the migrarory pressure on Melilla is permanent, and that immigrants will continue to attempt to scale the fence en masse.

According to El Barkani, after arriving in Melilla, the immigrants were taken to police headquarters to be identified, and many will enter the Temporary Center for Immigrants.