MADRID (AP) – Something was wrong with the guard inspecting the sealed bags of toxic ash in the port of Melilla, one of Spain’s two small territories in North Africa. So he pulled out a knife, cut the bag and found a motionless leg, confirming his suspicion that a person was inside.
He lifted and let go of his foot several times, without any reaction. A few moments passed. Suddenly his leg pulled back and a young man came out of the ashes – scared and disoriented, but alive.
The disturbing scene in a video released on Monday by the Spanish Civil Guard highlighted the lengths and high risks that migrants and asylum seekers take in their desperate attempts to reach Europe.
The survivor was among 41 people found hiding in the middle of the cargo in the area of the port of Melilla on Friday, trying to sneak aboard a ship to take them across the Mediterranean Sea to mainland Spain.
Four of them were found buried in recycling bins under glass bottles, some broken with sharp edges.
Surrounded by Morocco, the small enclaves of nearby Melilla and Ceuta have been a target for many African migrants for years. But the two territories fall outside the Schengen area of free mobility throughout Europe, so many of them remain trapped in their efforts to reach European soil.
The port of Melilla, where trucks and containers embark on a trip to Spain that can take up to seven hours, offers many a way to escape. Some try to enter the fenced area of the port by swimming there or hiding under vehicles, jumping on them when they slow down or stop at the gates of the port.
Others try to climb fences and perimeter walls, sometimes falling and seriously injuring themselves.
With the help of search dogs and microphones to detect heartbeats, police officers often find people hiding in the middle of the load, from containers to cement mixers. This year alone, the Civil Guard said it had identified 1,781 migrants entering the security perimeter of the port of Melilla; last year, the number was 11,700.
However, discoveries like last week’s are unsettling for the most experienced officers.
“We will never get used to it,” said Juan Antonio Martín, a spokesman for the Civil Guard in Melilla.
As the border between the Spanish territories of North Africa and Morocco has been closed since the pandemic began in March, it is more difficult for migrants to sneak in. According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, almost 1,500 people passed illegally in Melilla last year, compared to more than 5,800 in 2019.
But those who tried to leave Melilla last week were already in the enclave, Martín said. They could not take passenger ferries or flights to get to the mainland, either because they did not have travel documents or because they entered Spain illegally in the first place.
Their nationality was not released, but the spokesman said most were of Moroccan origin.
While the closure of the land border with Ceuta and Melilla by Morocco took place after years of increased border security, which has already led to a large decrease in illegal crossings, the Canary Islands of Spain in the Atlantic Ocean have become the main landing point. for people fleeing North and West Africa to Europe.
Last year, about 23,000 people arrived in the archipelago, most of them being snatched from the waters by the Spanish Maritime Rescue Service and more than 500 died or disappeared in the attempt.
And there, too, rescuers sometimes faced the unimaginable. In December, the Spanish newspaper El País reported how a 14-year-old Nigerian man spent two weeks clinging to the rudder of an oil tanker before being found by a patrol boat near the port of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
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Brito reported from Barcelona, Spain.