Video shows baton blows and kicks in bid to stop migrants entering Spain

Footage captured by security cameras at the El Tarajal border post in Spain’s exclave city of Ceuta shows nearly 200 would-be migrants rushing through the gate in the early hours of the morning, on Monday August 7.

The security video shows how, at around 4.50am, a group of people begins to crowd around the closed border gates and the police officers assigned to the post run to the street. At one point, one of the immigrants jumps the fence and instantly a large group manages to open the entrance and run through, despite efforts from border guards.

One of the blows saw an officer end up with a fracture to both the tibia and fibula of his right leg

The footage also shows one police officer striking several of the undocumented immigrants with his baton, but not trying to detain any of them. The other officer in the video begins to do the same by attempting to kick and trip the immigrants rushing in. One of the blows saw him end up with a fracture to both the tibia and fibula of his right leg. Government representative in Ceuta Nicolás Fernández Curucull blamed these injuries on the “violent attitude” of the immigrants, who, he said, “trampled the officers.”

However, the video shows the immigrants simply rushing the border and dodging officers in order to achieve their goal of entering Spain. In the end, 187 people managed to cross the border that night.

English version by Debora Almeida.