Assault on Melilia Fence, a “Premeditated, Meticulously Organized Criminal Act” – Expert

The attempted assault on the occupied enclave of Melilia, carried out on June 24, 2022 by a group of illegal sub-Saharan migrants was no ordinary event but a fully-fledged, premeditated and meticulously organized criminal act, said Atik Essaid, professor of public law and political science at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech. The attack was meticulously prepared by organized and trained individuals, Essaid told MAP, pointing out that the gathering of these individuals was not spontaneous, as is usually the case at ordinary gatherings, but rather a controlled and methodical movement, as evidenced by the attack’s coordinated nature, which lasted two hours, and the premeditated and recurrent use of force against the forces of law and order, 140 of whom were injured trying to repel the assailants. Illegal migration was used as a cover for these criminal acts, whose extreme violence proves that they were organized by structured international mafia networks specializing in human trafficking, and carried out by groups who had received paramilitary training and had taken advantage of Algeria’s porous borders, noted the analyst.  In this regard, Essaid highlighted Morocco’s efforts to secure its borders, stop the flow of illegal migrants and prevent criminal networks infiltration and terrorist organizations that use illegal migration as a way to gain access to Spain and spread throughout Europe. “Public authorities intervention during these events was carried out in strict compliance with constitutional and legal provisions, international conventions, human rights principles and the Kingdom’s commitments in terms of asylum and migration”, he pointed out. Any analysis out of this context would be nothing more than an attempt to falsify the facts and denigrate the efforts made over the years by Morocco to integrate migrants, he said, stressing that Morocco, long considered a transit country, has become a host country for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, whose numbers have quadrupled in view of the stability prevailing in the Kingdom. Under the impetus of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, a new national immigration and asylum strategy was launched, enabling the exceptional regularization, in three successive stages, of more than 50,000 illegal migrants from 112 countries, representing 92% of submitted applications. In recognition of humanitarian policy adopted by the Kingdom, the African Union (AU) designated His Majesty the King African Leader on the issue of migration, he stressed, noting that Morocco is now a reliable partner of the European Union (EU) in this field.