Is Morocco Making Migrants Disappear?

[Music] [Music] this was the last photo I have from my brother Adam when he was in Morocco when was the last time that you heard from him 17 May 2022 so a little more than a month before he went missing yes in 20120 Adam bakit fled the war in Sudan and headed for Europe to meet his brother Mustafa but along the way Adam went missing this last message that you sent to him what does that say welcome hello I try to just get know his phone is working or not and it didn't deliver yes on June 24th of last year Adam and about 2,000 others mostly from Sudan tried to cross the border from Morocco into Malia one of two cities in Morocco that officially belong to Spain police penned them into an enclosed area shot them with rubber bullets and tear gas and beat them migrants who set foot in Mia have the right to seek asylum in the EU without having to leave Africa so Europe goes to extreme lengths to keep them out and it enlists Morocco to help the Moroccan government says that 23 people died on June 24th but the actual number is unknown close to 80 people went missing that day they are not on official lists of the dead or imprisoned they simply disappeared we went to Morocco to investigate what happened to them did they just go missing or did the Moroccan government acting on behalf of Europe make them go missing you ready yeah let's do it Morocco is a dangerous place for journalists to report this story without getting arrested we had to pose as tourists and shoot on our phones right now I'm standing in Morocco but right on the other side of that fence is Europe that is Mia it's a city that technically officially belongs to the government of Spain it's one of two very small land borders that divide not just Morocco from Spain but Morocco better okay okay all this security is designed to keep migrants specifically black migrants from even getting close to the Border it's also part of an effort to keep scrutiny off of what happened on June 24th many of the migrants who tried to cross the border that day are still stuck in Morocco we arranged to meet a group of them in Casablanca these the places where migrants congregate are very heavily surveilled by the police they raid them they arrest them they chase them away they take their possessions we're going late at night because we're hoping that the police presence is a little bit less heavy I think we should Circle the block because of the dangers they face from police we agreed to hide their identities how many people here were there last June in Mia did it fracture his skull do people here know somebody who disappeared that day we went with one Survivor to a secure location away from police we cross the first world which is Aman world the second world is the European Union so when I cross the two walls I didn't know what happened again anymore I was just HED on the head and I just fainted so you made it into Malia you made it onto Spanish territory I entered the Spanish territory but I was gone when I open my eyes I got myself back in the Moroccan site I saw the Moroccan police and rest of my colleagues who are lying there if you are not moving they hit you they hit you with something so hard if you move yourself they know that you're alive if you didn't know they know that you are already dead so I was taken in a bus to certain city within moroco one of our colleagues died in the bus he was shivering andly he died and the remaining 19 of us were just dropped there and when the bus left you on the side of the road what happened to the person who had died it wasn't drop with us I know nothing about him because uh no one is allowed to investigate what happened to him they missing I think they are all dead they have just buried them like that secretly after the massacre buses drove injured migrants to remote places hundreds of miles away we know of at least two people who died during the journey this practice of putting migrants on buses and this part of the larger uh strategy of deterrence the difference is that in this instance many of those people were severely or even mortally wounded so this policy in this case becomes ESS enally a mechanism for forcibly disappearing people so we managed to get a phone number for a driver who works for one of the bus companies that uh does these transfers of migrants our translator called him and asked what he knew about that day the Moroccan government did not respond to our questions the Spanish government said it had no jurisdiction over events that took place in Morocco both governments conducted investigations that concluded there was no wrongdoing by authorities but neither investigation addressed the Disappeared even though the evidence suggests these fit the legal definition of enforced disappearances carried out by the state family members of the missing have been left to find their loved ones on their own for that they've mostly relied on the work of one man a human rights volunteer named Omar Nai both Spanish and Moroccan authorities could just say there was violence and people died but it was justified and here are the people who died why disappear them that one person is Adam bakit mustafa's brother of all the people who died that day he's the only one who's been identified nine months after Adam went missing Mustafa came to Morocco to identify his body he buried his brother in the local Cemetery not far from the border we've been surging and we we've been waiting we thinking he's alive after 9 months we find out he's passed away they keep him in the prison for 9 months Adam was found but he is the exception Mustafa only got a visa to Morocco because he lives in the UK most people don't have that option because Morocco denies visas to anyone coming from Sudan in addition to the photo of his brother Mustafa saw photos of 24 other people that means there are 24 bodies still in the morg that the government is making it nearly impossible to identify for now they count among the missing and they're still just a fraction of the total number some of the family telling me our sons is pass away in the same day there is no thereare so where is the body gone this is the question here why do you think the Moroccan government made it so difficult for you and other people to find their loved ones who's killed them Moroccan Giver man if you met crime you need to hide something but the reasons the Moroccan Giver man they stop them they're not going to let them cross the border because EU they pay them they pay the poor country like Moroccan shoot them kill them do everything but don't let them come out so do you think Europe and the EU is responsible for what happened to your brother that's correct in a carefully designed Outsourcing model the EU has directed at least 19 billion EUR to countries outside its borders for managing migration and that's just an estimate the EU makes it nearly impossible to know the full amount or how exactly the money gets spent the European Union has managed to entirely avoid accountability for anything that happened that day that's in spite of the fact that Europe provides the funding that countries like Morocco use to prevent often violently migrants from reaching European territory just 10 days after the massacre the EU official in charge of migration actually praised Morocco for its work Morocco is a key strategic partner of the European Union to manage migration and to fight [Music] smuggling we spent several months trying to get interviews with various different people at the EU and after being either told no or ignored for a long time we finally got a spokesperson to agree to a 5 to 10 minute interview does the European commission admit any responsibility for what happened on the Malia border on the 24th of June violence and loss of lives at the US external border is unacceptable and member states have the responsibility to protect you's borders in line with fundamental rights now when it comes to the specific tragic incident this is for the national authorities to investigate did an incident such as this one cause some degree of self-reflection on the part of the European Union or any degree of questioning or um investigating whether that partnership is uh operating as it should when we see loss of lives at the youth external borders when we see increases in terms of people desperately uh risking their lives dying at the hands of Smugglers of criminal networks they died at the hands of smugglers in this case they died there's ample evidence to suggest they died at died and were forcibly disappeared at the hands of authorities security forces of the countries in question I cannot tell you about the specific incidents because I'm not law enforcement and this is for the national authorities to investigate in the coming years the EU plans to invest even more into Outsourcing its border controls even as the strategy does little to deter people displaced by War and poverty in Sudan two decades of conflict LED this year to an outright Civil War which has already displaced a million more people in Sudan you will live with your friend today tomorrow you hear his dead we are just uh trying to look for a peaceful place to stay are you trying to find a different way to get to Europe are you going to try again I'm always trying and I will never give up I will always keep trying until I cross the

Channel: VICE News

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Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2024, morocco, migrants, morocco migrants, world news, showtime, migrant, missing people, missing persons, the disappeared, showtime morocco, migrants disappearing, David Noriega, vice morocco, Melilla, immigration, immigration policies, policies, immigrants, morocco immigration, david noriega migrants, david noriega vice, immigration law

Id: c2jYMs6LyWM

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Wed May 01 2024