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IMMIGRATION

Spain authorities help rescue 66 migrants at sea

Spanish and Moroccan emergency services on Saturday rescued 66 African immigrants trying to cross the Strait of Gibraltar in flimsy boats.

Published: 4 May 2013 20:07 CEST
Spain authorities help rescue 66 migrants at sea
File photo of would-be African migrants being rescued by emergency services in the Strait of Gibraltar: Marcos Moreno/AFP

A spokesman for maritime emergency services in Tarifa on the southern tip of Spain told AFP that nine men had been rescued by Spanish authorities and another 57 people by Morocco.

Numerous illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa try and reach Spain on a daily basis in inflatable dinghies or other makeshift boats.

Others make the journey by land, hoping to cross the border into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in northern Morocco.

These desperate attempts to reach European soil have resulted in violence.

On April 26th nine people were injured when between 150 and 200 migrants stormed the Melilla border fence.

On April 21st, six Spanish police officers were injured when they tried to stop 15 migrants armed with sticks and knives from illegally entering Melilla by boat.

And on March 11th, some 25 people were injured in a storming of the fence. A Moroccan human rights group said that one of them, a Cameroonian man of 30, died of his injuries in Morocco.

Spanish authorities have reported a surge in attempts to scale the fence over recent months while hundreds camp in the wild nearby on the Moroccan side.

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CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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