Three migrants found hidden in cars at Spain-Morocco border

Three African migrants, including one who is 15, were discovered squeezed inside compartments under car dashboards and behind seats at a border crossing from Morocco to Spain, police said on Monday.

Spanish police found a 15-year-old girl and two men aged 20 and 21, on Friday morning when they searched three cars at the border between Morocco and the Spanish territory of Melilla, a spokesman for the Guardia Civil police force said.

Two migrants were found crammed inside tiny spaces installed under car dashboards while a third was hidden in a compartment behind the rear seat of one vehicle, a Guardia Civil statement said.

A member of the Spanish Guardia Civil checking inside a car dashboard where an African migrant is squeezed. AFP

Two of the migrants required medical attention because they showed "symptoms of asphyxia, disorientation and generalised pain in the joints due to horrible way in which they were travelling," the statement added.

Police arrested the three drivers, all Moroccan men aged 19-31, on suspicion of people smuggling.

Border police also found a 20-year-old migrant on Friday hanging from the undercarriage of a truck at the border crossing.

Spain's two North African enclaves, Melilla and Ceuta, have the European Union's only land borders with Africa.

They are often used as entry points into Europe for African migrants, who usually either climb over border fences or try to swim along the coast.

A member of the Spanish Guardia Civil checking inside a car dashboard where an African migrant is squeezed. AFP

Recently, 52 African migrants forced their way into Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla from Morocco by climbing over a towering border fence, Spanish authorities said.
About 100 migrants tried to storm the barbed wire fence at dawn but Spanish and Moroccan security force prevented “around half” from entering Melilla, Spain interior ministry in Melilla said in a statement.

One migrant was taken to a medical centre to treat cuts he suffered scaling the fence while four Spanish police officers sustained bruises, it added.

Police arrested one of the migrants for assaulting an officer.

Video images published by local newspaper El Faro de Ceuta showed sweaters and jackets stuck to the razor wire that tops the border fence, left behind by the migrants.

The 52 who managed to enter Melilla were taken to a temporary migrant accommodation centre where they were given new clothes.

It was the biggest assault on the border between Melilla and Morocco since October 2018, when some 300 migrants stormed the fence. About 200 migrants managed to get into Melilla that time and one died of a suspected heart attack in the attempt.

Agence France-Presse