Massive Repression against Migrants in Oujda - Morocco
The original in French is found here:
http://thecaravan.org/node/1305
http://www.thevoiceforum.org/node/542
Using the opportunity of the summer vacation when the Oujda university students are not present, Moroccan security forces carried out a raid on the campus, which has served as a space to live for the migrants for quite some time, in the early morning of 26 July 2007.
This searching and raid action was very vigorous and the biggest of its kind since the well-known incidents of Ceuta and Melilla. More than 450 persons have been arrested.
According to the information from some migrants who could escape and Morrocans living near the campus, police, military and supporting forces surrounded the migrants around 4 o'clock in the morning, arresting, maltreating and beating them down in a brutal and violent manner with straps and batons made of hard rubber. Then they took them and made them enter their police vehicles.
The migrants fleed from the campus towards the neighbouring forest, chased by police forces and their dogs. The security forces passed over the refugees' camp with a bulldozer. They destroyed and burned down everything that was there. Everyone is now talking about several persons injured, but up to now their exact number is not clear yet.
The police continue to do patrols on the campus and in the neighbouring quarters, looking for migrants.
At the moment this report is sent, information is coming in that a first group of migrants were made to enter two police cars at the police station. There is no doubt that they are going to be taken to the Algerian border.
Best regards and solidarity,
Hicham Baraka
ABCDS (Beni Znassen Association for Culture, Development and Solidarity, Oujda)