Spanish politicians demand more explanation about Melilla migrant tragedy

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) – All of Spain’s political parties, with the exception of the ruling Socialist Party, demanded Friday more explanation about the Melilla migrant tragedy after watching police videos.

The videos were screened behind closed doors, but a select group of politicians could see what occurred the day that at least 23 migrants died when trying to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Melilla.

Independent experts said the true death toll was as high as 37.

“I wish you, the journalists, would have been able to see the same videos, so you could have seen Marlaska’s lies,” Popular Party politician Ana Vazquez said in a press conference, referring to Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska, who was in charge of the police and military response at the border.

Enrique Santiago of Spain’s junior coalition partner Unidas Podemos called the images “tremendous” and criticized the government for engaging in hundreds of illegal pushbacks. He also said Spain needs a protocol to avoid this violence from happening again.

Ciudadanos politician Miguel Gutierrez said the images show that migrants were injured on Spanish territory, contradicting the official version of Spain’s Interior Minister.

Going even further, EH Bildu politician Jon Inarritu said the videos showed how migrants who clearly needed medical attention were not attended to and even pushed back into Morocco.

“You can’t deny that the main events occurred on Spanish territory,” he added, referring to a deadly stampede that crushed migrants between a series of border fences.

Earlier this month, the BBC released a documentary that also claimed deaths and injuries took place on Spanish soil. At the time, Spain’s interior minister said the documentary did not “correspond to reality.”

All groups called for Marlaska to testify about the incident again on Wednesday and did not rule out voting in favor of a parliamentary investigation into the tragedy.

Speaking from Brussels on Friday, Marlaska stuck to the same story, insisting that no deaths occurred on Spanish territory and that Spain’s response at the border was “legal and proportionate.”

He also accused the politicians who saw the video of not watching the full eight hours of footage and of bringing in “personal biases.”