400 immigrants attempt to enter Spanish enclave

Around 400 Sub-Saharan immigrants launched an attempt to breach the frontier wire separating the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco in the early hours of Monday morning.

The attempt took place in four separate places along the six-metre high wire, but was on the most part unsuccessful with only one person able to scale the triple layer of fencing and make way to the Temporary Immigrant Housing Centre (CETI) in the middle of the town.

The attempt to cross into Spanish territory at different points along the frontier was met by a large number of Spanish and Moroccan security forces and there are reports of stones being thrown as a group of around 200 would-be immigrants attempted to force their way through a frontier crossing early Monday morning, according to Xinhua.

This is the first serious attempt made by the immigrants to cross into Melilla in November. The last attempt to cross into what is effectively European Union (EU) territory happened Oct 30, when 300 immigrants made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the wire.

October saw several other attempts on the wire with over 50 immigrants successfully crossing into Melilla Oct 20.