In the early morning of the 10th of February the police stormed the camps in the woods in Gurugu, which, in the last years have become the base from which the fence of Melilla has been attacked. More than 1000 people from various nationalities were arrested, the camps destroyed and burned down. The same thing was repeated a few days later on the 13th of February in the woods surrounding Nador, where from many migrants (including many women and children) leave on the journey by boat to Spain. This time 200 people were arrested, the others were warned beforehand and were able to hide themselves.

The migrants were brought to a detention center near to Nador and from there with buses into the center of South Morocco. The arrested have been kept prisoner in improvised accommodation for days, the conditions are hard, the rights of the prisoners are being trampled underfoot: Amongst the prisoners are under-aged and people with residence papers, They are detained all day without been given a reason for the imprisonment or to know what will follow. Behind the scenes negotiations are going on between the embassies of the countries of origin, who should accent the up and coming deportations. Thus far Mali and Senegal have consented, Cameroon refused. The Mauritius refused two buses passage at the border. Many things remind of the disastrous mass-deportations of hundreds of migrants in the desert close to the Algerian border in 2005.

Also for those left behind the situation is extremely hard: the camps are ruined, the little belongings that the migrants usually have to protect at them least a little from the wind and weather has been burned. Many are sleeping in the bushes due to fear of falling into the hands of the police. Dread and mistrust reigns, migrants are racially insulted and sometimes tracked and betrayed by the local population. It is unclear if Morocco is seriously trying to deport everyone without papers; since the 2014 Program of Regularization was finalized there is the fear that deportation is increasing. This anxiety seemed until now just to apply to Nador, in other cities people were checked for papers, threatened and arrested. There had not been raids in other camps or city quarters (like for example Cassiago on the Spanish enclave Ceuta or Boukhalef/Tangier).

Morocco justifies these inhuman and completely abstruse actions with a human-rights discourse which is copied down word for word from Europe. The evictions of the camps claim to "free" the people who find themselves in the hands of smugglers and human traffickers. Through this exactly the same pictures are reproduced which are drummed into us by European governments and media: the people which are living in the Moroccan woods constitute a threat; jihadism, Ebola or Mafia, the reasons are interchangeable, the racism is the same.

Such clear words are not loved by the Moroccan state, The critical media and human rights organizations are denied information and access to the camps, the AMDH (Association of Human Rights Morocco) headquarters in Rabat was searched yesterday and two journalist were arrested. Morocco also does not want to be accused of acting as a watchdog for Europe. For the terrorizing of migrants and refugees Morocco is generously remunerated by the EU and Spain.
Therefor it is up to us to take over responsibility for what is being played out on the borders of Europe. Get mobile against the coming walling-off of Europe!

SOLIDARITY WITH THE MIGRANTS IN NORTH-MOROCCO!

STOP THE WAR AGAINST MIGRANTS!

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT! NO BORDERS!

more infos on beatingborders.wordpress.com aswell as twitter (@NoBordersMaroc)

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT OUR CALL FOR DONATIONS IN SOLIDARITY WITH VICTIMS:  https://beatingborders.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/call-out-for-support-after-massive-police-raids-and-deportations-in-gurugu/