Some 1,200 migrants tried to cross the high fence protecting the Spanish enclave of Melilla, on the northern coast of Morocco, on Thursday morning and around 350 of them succeeded, local authorities said.
On Wednesday, 2,500 migrants had done the same during the most massive crossing attempt ever recorded in this enclave. Nearly 500 had managed to enter Melilla.
“At around 6 a.m. (5 a.m. GMT) today, the Civil Guard command saw a group of around 1,200 migrants approaching the fence,” Melilla prefecture said in a statement.
“After overrunning the Moroccan security forces, they began, around 7:25 a.m. (6:25 GMT), to cross the fence (…) throwing stones and using hooks and sticks against the security forces” , she added.
“We estimate that around 350 entered the city,” the prefecture continued.
Melilla and the other Spanish enclave of Ceuta, located almost 400 kilometers further west, constitute the only land borders of the European Union in Africa.
For this reason, they are regularly the subject of attempts to enter by illegal migrants seeking to reach Europe to escape war or poverty after crossing part of Africa to Morocco.
Over the whole of 2021, 1,092 migrants managed to enter Melilla, according to figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.