Hundreds were rounded up during the Chrismas festivities, and abandoned in the desert at the border with Algeria.
There is a new "caravan" of 140 people who were raided in Layoun on the way to Oujda via Fes and deported towards the Algerian border. It is good if there are volunteers (like from the mentioned human rights organisations and attac).
The friends in Oujda have as their main problem that they are not enough people to support the migrants. Since yesterday they are trying to bring back the registered refugees to Rabat, but of the 54 people only 4 could take the bus
Among the 280 people who were deported to the Algerian border, 150 could get back to Oujda. There is no information about the others!
- The arrested migrants could not take their belongings and their clothes, so they were brought to the border in underwear, although it is very cold!
- There are at least 52 refugees and asylum seekers with documents from the UNHCR among the arrested people, 17 cases more are checked.
- Among the migrants, there are women with children, among them 4 under 2 years old and one with handicap.
- Two women are pregnant in the 7th and 5th month. They arrived at the campus in Oujda very shocked and tired and were brought to places where they are safe.
- 4 women were raped by moroccan (3) or algerian men.
- Among the migrants there were sick people, who were refused to take medecine.
- No food was provided to the migrants during their transport from Rabat to Oujda (600 km).
- Migrants were beaten with whips and sticks by the moroccan police and the algerian border police.
- There is one special case among the deported people: a Senegalese businessman who had been living in Marakesh/Morocco legally since 2004.
This article remembers of an event exactly one year ago: On the 30th of december 2005, there was a massacre by the Egyptian police against Sudanese refugees, where 27 (according to official sources) or more than 200 (according to people who were present) were killed. 6000 policemen intervened after the UNHCR had rejected the demands of the refugees to solve their situation. This showed the inability of the UNHCR to to define a policy for the "people without state".
Also in 2005, 11 migrants died at the fence of Ceuta in the night 28/29 september.
There was a lot in the media about the events in Ceuta and Melilla. Some weeks later, almost nobody talked about the dead people after the massacre in Egypt.
And I add: Today, at least in Germany, no newspaper or tv station reports about the raids and deportations in Morocco!
Conni from Hamburg
The friends in Oujda have as their main problem that they are not enough people to support the migrants. Since yesterday they are trying to bring back the registered refugees to Rabat, but of the 54 people only 4 could take the bus
Among the 280 people who were deported to the Algerian border, 150 could get back to Oujda. There is no information about the others!
- The arrested migrants could not take their belongings and their clothes, so they were brought to the border in underwear, although it is very cold!
- There are at least 52 refugees and asylum seekers with documents from the UNHCR among the arrested people, 17 cases more are checked.
- Among the migrants, there are women with children, among them 4 under 2 years old and one with handicap.
- Two women are pregnant in the 7th and 5th month. They arrived at the campus in Oujda very shocked and tired and were brought to places where they are safe.
- 4 women were raped by moroccan (3) or algerian men.
- Among the migrants there were sick people, who were refused to take medecine.
- No food was provided to the migrants during their transport from Rabat to Oujda (600 km).
- Migrants were beaten with whips and sticks by the moroccan police and the algerian border police.
- There is one special case among the deported people: a Senegalese businessman who had been living in Marakesh/Morocco legally since 2004.
This article remembers of an event exactly one year ago: On the 30th of december 2005, there was a massacre by the Egyptian police against Sudanese refugees, where 27 (according to official sources) or more than 200 (according to people who were present) were killed. 6000 policemen intervened after the UNHCR had rejected the demands of the refugees to solve their situation. This showed the inability of the UNHCR to to define a policy for the "people without state".
Also in 2005, 11 migrants died at the fence of Ceuta in the night 28/29 september.
There was a lot in the media about the events in Ceuta and Melilla. Some weeks later, almost nobody talked about the dead people after the massacre in Egypt.
And I add: Today, at least in Germany, no newspaper or tv station reports about the raids and deportations in Morocco!
Conni from Hamburg
