23 migrants die in Morocco stampede

Moroccan officials said Saturday that at least 23 migrants had died and scores more had been injured after what authorities described as a stampede during an attempted mass crossing into the Spanish enclave of Melilla, in North Africa. But human-rights organizations accused security forces of using indiscriminate force at the crossing and have called for an investigation into the deaths.

A spokesperson for the Spanish government’s office in Melilla said that about 2,000 migrants approached the enclave at dawn Friday. He said that 500 had managed to enter a border control area after cutting through a fence, leading to violent clashes that also left security officers on both sides of the border injured.

According to Moroccan authorities, many migrants fell to their deaths after trying to scale the border fence, while 76 others, as well as 140 Moroccan security officers, had been injured. At least 130 people were able to successfully cross into Melilla, where they are now being processed in a temporary immigration shelter, according to Spanish officials in the enclave.

In a video of the episode that was shared by the Moroccan Association of Human Rights and confirmed by geolocation, dozens of bodies and injured men can be seen piled on top of one another along the border fence, surrounded by Moroccan security officers in riot gear. In other footage, a Moroccan security officer can be seen beating visibly injured migrants with a baton as they lie writhing on the floor, before a colleague proceeds to throw the limp body of another man onto the pile.