Attorney general orders probe into razor wire on Melilla border

The attorney general, Eduardo Torres-Dulce, has ordered an investigation into the decision of the Melilla authorities to add a layer of razor wire to the top of a section of the border fence between the Spanish exclave and Morocco. The measure was adopted in the face of sustained and multitudinous attempts by would-be immigrants to rush the fence during the course of the year. In a recent attempt, a man was killed falling from the top of the barrier.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Congressional Justice Committee to present his department’s annual report, Torres-Dulce said that the addition of razor wire to the six-meter border fence is not “a course of action in line with the law” or compliant with “questions of humanity.”

The attorney general was answering a question posed by Catalan Republican Left deputy Joan Tardá about what he termed the “shameful” decision to add the formidable obstacle to the fence.

The razor wire on the Melilla border was removed in 2007 by the previous Socialist government because of the terrible injuries sustained by would-be immigrants attempting to scale the fence in the wake of protests by NGOs. The cost of increasing the fence’s height from three to six meters and installing the wire was 30 million euros. Work to lay the new wire is expected to be completed by the end of the month.