Immigrants surge across border
2005-10-03 09:33
Melilla - African immigrants staged another run across the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla before dawn on Monday, defying increased security following a wave of arrivals last week, the interior ministry said.
News reports said several hundred people tried to make the crossing, and many succeeded. Spanish National Television put the figure at 300. The ministry gave no figures.
On Monday morning, the police station in Melilla was full of Africans who had gone there to surrender after crossing two razor-wire fences that separate Melilla from Morocco.
Red Cross officials said about 200 hundred people managed to cross the frontier, where army troops boosted security last week after an estimated 1 000 men used makeshift ladders to try to get over the fences on Tuesday, and some 300 succeeded.
- AP