The Unified Police Union (SUP) believes that there is a “mimetic effect” with respect to what is happening in Ceuta and that this is what has led hundreds of Moroccan minors to try to enter Melilla through the Beni-Enzar border.
For this reason, the union organisation does not rule out the possibility of new avalanches across the Beni-Enzar border, according to its general secretary, Jesús Ruíz Barranco. “Right now there is a mimetic effect with Ceuta and young Moroccans are coming through here to try to enter Melilla illegally.”
In this regard, Ruíz has highlighted the collaboration provided by the Moroccan authorities to prevent the passage of these minors. “We must highlight the Moroccan collaboration, which has prevented hundreds of young people, teenagers, from running through the Beni-Enzar border post.”
Regarding whether the Spanish police are prepared to deal with a situation of mass attempts to enter the city, the SUP leader in Melilla explained that the police officers at the border are in charge of document control and, consequently, are not specially trained to receive hundreds of people who want to enter quickly.
However, he stressed that there is a police unit that has the necessary tools to deal with such a situation. “There is another operational staff that is here in Melilla. We are talking about the Intervention Unit, which is providing security for the authorized passage. They are prepared for that,” he said.
Arrested
On the other hand, it should be noted that, according to information provided by the newspaper La Razón, sixteen of the fifty people who tried to swim into Melilla last Sunday have been arrested by the Moroccan authorities.
Most of the detainees, including those instigating illegal immigration, were arrested in the town of Beni Enzar and the surrounding areas on the borders of the Thaghar gorge. They are between 18 and 28 years old.