Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of January 2020
Case name: 2020_01_12-WM445
Situation: 35 travellers including 10 women (three of them pregnant) and 5 children entered Melilla by land at Beni Ansar and were pushed back to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

The 12th of January, we were called at 10.55pm by a relative informing us that a group of 35 people, including 10 women and 5 children, entered Meillla at Bni Ansar and were with the Guardia Civil, fearing that they would be pushed back. He asked us to intervene. We told him that what we can do is to raise pressure via social media, which we did.
At 11.36pm the relative sent us a message saying that he was just called by the travellers: everybody had been pushed back.
We never spoke directly to the people, but finaly learned during the next days that the travellers had run towards the "grande porte", the main entry of Melilla. Immediately when they reached the third fence they were beaten up heavily by the Moroccan police and brought back to the Moroccan side, where the Moroccan police continued beating them up. Two persons had been brought directly to hospital, while the others were detained at the police station.
Today, we still have not found out what happend to them, if they were released, deported to the south or even to their countries of origin.