A counter-investigation into the racist massacre of 24 June 2022
A counter-investigation into the racist massacre of 24 June 2022, by Border Forensics, in collaboration with Irídia-Centre for the Defense of Human Rights and AMDH-Moroccan Association for Human Rights
„On 24 June 2022, almost two thousand people tried to cross the border fence separating the Moroccan town of Nador from the Spanish-controlled town of Melilla. The migrants’ attempted crossing, which occurred at the Barrio Chino border post, was violently repressed by Moroccan and Spanish law enforcement agents. Only 134 people managed to enter Melilla and seek asylum. 470 people were deported back to Morocco by Spanish and Moroccan officials after they had crossed over to the Spanish-controlled side of the border fence. The violence inflicted on migrants by Moroccan and Spanish law enforcement agents that day turned the Barrio Chino border crossing into a death trap and resulted in the formation of a mass grave. The Moroccan authorities have acknowledged 23 deaths, but the Moroccan Human Rights Association in Nador has counted at least 27 people killed on that day, and more than 70 remain missing to this day.
Despite the many images filmed by various actors and several reports published by official bodies, associations, and journalists, there are still many grey areas concerning the course of events on that day. The Moroccan and Spanish authorities are far from having shed full light on the facts and have instead prevented independent investigations from gaining access to many essential elements of evidence.
How was this outburst of violence possible? Through what specific acts did it take place? Who was responsible? How and by whom was the Barrio Chino border post turned into a death trap?
Commemoration of the massacre by survivors on 29 June 2022 in front of the CETI in Melilla. Photograph: Cléo Marmié, 2022.
Two years after the events, these questions have yet to be answered, and the demands for truth and justice from the survivors of the massacre and the families of the dead and disappeared have gone unheard. On the contrary, instead of using the judicial institutions to determine those responsible for the massacre, Morocco has used its judicial system to continue repressing the survivors of the massacre, several dozen of whom have been sentenced to prison for alleged acts of violence and other offenses. The Spanish prosecutor has not found any evidence of violations and has closed his investigation. Moreover, far from being dismantled, the border fence has been reinforced and, although border crossings have decreased since 24 June 2022, the system of racist repression at the border remains unchanged
It is to support the demand for truth and justice of the victims of the 24 June 2022 massacre and their families, and to combat this regime of impunity that allows the border violence to be perpetuated, that Border Forensics, in collaboration with Irídia and the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), as well as other civil society actors on both sides of the border, has conducted a counter-investigation for over a year, while benefiting from additional advice from the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). Together, we assembled a transdisciplinary team made up of members of human rights associations, journalists, and researchers specializing in critical analysis of the borders of migration policies and anti-Black racism, as well as experts in spatial and visual reconstruction, statisticians, architects, and documentary filmmakers.
By articulating our analysis of the massacre across different spatial and temporal scales, we have attempted to understand not only the sequence of events and the practices of the actors present at the scene on 24 June 2022, but also the structural conditions that made the massacre possible, as well as the political conjuncture that shaped this unprecedented intensity of violence. We also analysed the violence that continued after 24 June, through the failure to identify the dead and missing, and the impunity and judicial targeting against the migrants themselves.
Our analysis shows that the many dead and missing during the massacre of 24 June 2022 were no accident. On the contrary, the migrants were repeatedly directed towards the Barrio Chino border crossing, and violently repressed by Moroccan and Spanish law enforcement agents once they were trapped there. But the death trap into which the migrants fell goes beyond the architecture of the border crossing or the chain of events that took place on 24 June. It has been woven by policies and practices operating in an extended space-time, including European and Spanish policies of externalizing migration control established over more than two decades, Moroccan migration diplomacy, impunity for violence perpetrated over many years, and the daily racist repression deployed against Black people in the area. All these elements combined to form a death trap, which the Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement agents executed on 24 June 2022.
Although there are still grey areas, the facts that we have reconstructed by cross-referencing numerous pieces of evidence are damning, both for the Moroccan and Spanish authorities and for the European Union, which supports them politically and financially. The authorities on both sides of the border must be brought to account for this massacre and finally respond to the victims’ and their families’ demands for truth and justice.
The Nador-Melilla massacre is, by the outburst of direct violence, the acts of racism and extreme dehumanization, and the large number of dead and disappeared, one of the most serious crimes perpetrated as part of the discriminatory and militarised management of Europe’s borders over the last 30 years. However, beyond its exceptional nature, this massacre exemplifies in an exacerbated way a wider trend towards the brutalization of the management of borders and the normalization of the violations perpetrated in the name of their “protection”. By precisely documenting the events of 24 June 2022 and analyzing the conditions that made them possible, it is also these wider trends that we seek to challenge….“
Find the comprehensive counter-investigation in English and French here: https://www.borderforensics.org/investigations/nadormelilla/
