How Spain looked on as dozens were crushed to death at its border

WARNING: This article contains disturbing images

At dawn on 24 June, a large group of African migrants surged towards a border fence separating Morocco from the tiny Spanish enclave of Melilla. 

In the hours-long chaos, many of the migrants were beaten, and crushed between an 8m-high (26 feet) fence and Moroccan border guards, who deployed batons and tear gas. Videos circulated online show dozens of people packed in one area of the border post, some lying motionless, some bleeding, others visibly in distress.

At least 24 migrants died, but the death toll is believed to be higher as more than 70 people are missing. What happened that day at the heavily fortified border crossing known as Barrio Chino - a gateway into Europe? 

In the days after the incident, Spanish and Moroccan authorities defended their actions, saying the migrants had been violent, and reasonable force had been used. 

But a BBC investigation has uncovered new details about the events, raising questions about the official versions.

We can reveal that:

• Lifeless bodies were dragged by Moroccan police from an area the BBC was told was Spanish-controlled
• The Spanish Ministry of the Interior has been accused of withholding crucial CCTVevidence from formal investigations
• Law enforcement officers fired rubber bullets at close range into a group of migrants on the Spanish side of the border crossing 
• More than 450 people who made it into the Spanish enclave to claim asylum were detained and pushed back to Morocco - some claim they were then beaten unconscious by Moroccan border guards
• Moroccan police entered Spanish land to take migrants back, and some migrants were beaten while Spanish border guards watched on
• Spanish authorities were aware the African migrants were coming to the crossing in large numbers

The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum.

The BBC’s Africa Eye team trawled through dozens of videos to try to build the most comprehensive picture yet of how the deadly incident unfolded. A BBC team also gained exclusive access to the border complex Barrio Chino, allowing us to compare video footage with what we found inside.

We also went into the Spanish Guardia Civil CCTV control room, where cameras trained on the border fence are monitored on giant screens. This means Spanish officials were likely to have seen a lot of what happened that day.

Death on the border

A BBC News investigation.

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK Only)

We wanted to find out why such violence was used and ask if more could have been done to prevent the loss of life.

To build a full picture, we have also spoken to dozens of survivors. 

Hassan, Ismail, Stephen and Mohammed (Mo) say they fled conflict in Sudan and South Sudan, travelling thousands of miles through Libya and Algeria to reach Morocco in the hope of making it to Europe to claim asylum. 

Stephen, who told us he was beaten by Moroccan border guards, said he wants to know why so many people died that day. 

"Sometimes when I remember this, I cry a lot. I will never forget what happened to us.”

To make sense of what happened, we need to move away from the border and into the mountains of Morocco, where large groups of African migrants had set up camp. 

Barrio Chino is part of an established migrant route for those looking to enter Spain and claim asylum. There seems to be a significant difference between how Moroccan border guards responded to this attempt on 24 June compared with previous attempts. Omar Naji, a Moroccan human rights activist, says that there were three crossings in March - of 2,500 migrants in total - which didn’t result in any fatalities. 

“The groups were bigger and they came down from the forest without any problems and nobody died,” he told the BBC.

“The only difference between March and June is that relations between Spain and Morocco were broken down in March, and in crisis, while in June, relations were restored - and on June 24 they confronted them with all this violence and tear gas.”

Bystanders filmed the migrants as they neared the border fence. The migrants are seen holding sticks. Moroccan authorities said they were armed with “sticks, stones and sharp objects”. The migrants say they carried them to help scale the three fences that separate Morocco from Melilla. 

The situation soon became very chaotic but videos of the day give us important details of the response of the Moroccan security forces. 

The first group of migrants - comprising hundreds of people - approached a gate at the corner of one of the border fences, but security forces kept them moving to the Barrio Chino border crossing with a barrage of tear gas, rocks and smoke bombs thrown from just metres away.

Barrio Chino is a large structure that feels and looks like part of an old football stadium terrace. On one side there is the Spanish entrance leading to secure turnstiles and a metal fence. This looks out to a courtyard - a place the Spanish Guardia Civil refer to as no man's land. Again, this is enclosed with metal fencing. On the far side, is the Moroccan entrance. 

Video footage from the day shows how the migrants were approached by Moroccan security forces from both sides of the street outside Barrio Chino. 

Another video shows large numbers of people starting to climb the outside fence that protects the border complex. At one point, the weight becomes too much and the fence collapses.  

Several migrants told us that, by the time they reached the border crossing they were blocked in on either side by Moroccan police.

They said they felt they had only one place to go, and that was into Barrio Chino. The gate was locked but they broke it open. 

“They attacked us from behind and they started firing tear gas,” says Mo. “They started throwing rocks, and [firing] rubber bullets. So many of our friends fell. If they [the guards] catch you, they're going to beat you in your head, in every place.”

A large group became stuck in the enclosed courtyard - or no man’s land.

Videos show Moroccan security forces throwing tear gas and smoke bombs into the space. 

Other images also show security forces gathered outside Barrio Chino in their hundreds. For those migrants inside, there was no retreat. 

Stephen was among those inside no man’s land. “They beat us,” he says. “We needed to enter [the Spanish side], but they didn’t want us to - they wanted us to die.” Another migrant told us: “The gates were closed and the security forces kept attacking us. They had got us inside and they knew we were trapped.”

Stephen says they felt trapped in the courtyard, and that some had difficulty breathing because of the tear gas. He says he believed there to be more than 700 people inside.

Stephen, Ismail and Mo told us they had been shocked by the levels of resistance they faced inside the courtyard. 

The guards treated them “like animals”, Mo said. “They started to beat [us]. They didn’t care if the blood was on your head or in your mouth or anywhere in your body.” 

In some of the videos, too graphic to show, we saw lifeless bodies being tossed around and people bleeding and in agony.

“My friends were dead,” says Mo. “There was blood everywhere and people were naked. It was horrible - like a war. I was thinking why do they attack us? I don’t want to hurt anyone, we just want to reach the other side, we are trying to find a safe life.”

Hassan said the scene in the courtyard had been “like hell”, while Stephen described what it had been like facing the tear gas and stones. “The sound is like 'boom'. You never see anything, you see the blood, everything is blood, you never see anything.” 

Many of those who didn’t manage to get out by scaling the fence were detained inside Barrio Chino. Hundreds more were kept on the ground on the Moroccan side of the fence, with the injured and the dead lying among them. They remained there for several hours, seemingly without medical care. One of the migrants told us: “The ambulance arrived late, they could have helped the injured but the security forces stopped the medics from helping us or treating our injuries.”

Twenty four migrants are known to have died in the clashes, and the BBC has been told that the fate of 77 others are unknown. 

Could more have been done to save lives? And what role did the Spanish authorities play that day as this chaos unfolded in front of them? 

In September, Spain’s interior ministerFernando Grande-Marlaska was questioned in parliament about Spain’s role in the events of 24 June. He insisted the deaths had not taken place on Spanish soil.

“The events took place in the national territory of a sovereign country and only in a very tangential way did it take place in Spain,” he said.

The BBC was taken into Barrio Chino from the Spanish-controlled side by Spain’s Guardia Civil - the first journalists to visit since 24 June.

Once through the gate, we were told by the Guardia Civil that the area we were standing in, looking into the so-called no man’s land, was Spanish-controlled.

We were then able to compare this area to video footage from the day. We could see dead bodies on film in the area we had now been told was Spanish-controlled. This raises new questions of accountability.

We now also know that most of those who made it across to Melilla were detained by Spanish authorities and immediately forced back to Morocco in a joint operation. 

Spanish journalist Javier Bernardo was filming there on the day and captured these images. 

His footage shows Moroccan security forces entering Spanish territory to take people back to Morocco - there was no opportunity for them to claim asylum. This practice is known as “pushbacks” and is legally contested.

“Everyone here that you can see in the picture, everyone was pushed back,” he said. He estimates that to be about 300 people.

We have also obtained this footage from Javier G. Angosto, filmed from the Spanish side, which shows dozens of Moroccan police walking through Barrio Chino taking people back. These images show that some were beaten by Moroccan authorities under the gaze of Spanish Guardia Civil. 

The Spanish Ministry of the Interior told the BBC that it was “false” to say 300 migrants were pushed back. It also said: “All rejections at the border were carried out in accordance with Spanish legislation endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights.”

But the interim report by the Spanish ombudsman concluded that 470 people had been pushed back to Morocco and it raised questions about the legality of the returns.

Those we spoke to who were sent back to Morocco told us they had been held outside Barrio Chino on the Moroccan side for hours without medical attention - one said he was beaten so badly he lost consciousness - and that security forces stopped medics from treating injuries. 

We have learned from eyewitnesses that a man called Abdelnasir later died of his injuries. 

It is unclear what happened to the bodies of all those who died.

Several sources have told us there are dozens of bodies being held in the mortuary in Nador, the Moroccan city closest to Melilla. 

Omar Naji from the Moroccan Human Rights Association says that, fearing a cover up, he went to the mortuary in Nador to try to find out more about how the migrants had died. 

He says nothing prepared him for what he found there.

“The corpses were lying on the ground. The smell was terrible. The floor of the morgue was full of blood.”

He wanted to document how the people died. 

“I only counted the corpses that were on the floor. There were 15 bodies - some had severe head and abdominal injuries. There were various wounds on heads, on the body and on the legs and especially on the hands because when they climbed the wall they could have been injured. But there were also bodies without injuries.”

Omar also visited the local cemetery and was shocked to find 21 fresh graves being dug in the section of the cemetery reserved for migrants. 

“The authorities wanted to bury the bodies without making the necessary investigations and without identifying the bodies. We caught the authorities in the cemetery of Nador while they were digging graves.”

He says that when he and others revealed who they were the authorities stopped what they were doing.

Omar has also been trying to verify the details of those who disappeared that day. So far, he has documented the names of 77 missing migrants, and he believes the final death toll will never be known.

In July, a Moroccan government-sanctioned report found that the main cause of migrant deaths had been “mechanical asphyxia” - suffocation through being crushed. It said that migrants had been violent and armed with sticks. It also said all the injured people had received the necessary medical care. 

The Moroccan government declined our request for an interview.

But the director of Migration and Border Surveillance in Morocco's Interior Ministry, Khalid Zerouali, did speak to Spanish media, and defended the actions of Moroccan officers.