African migrants 'left in desert'

African migrants in Spain's North African enclave Melilla said yesterday they feared for their lives if Madrid sent them back to Morocco under a plan to end attempts by hundreds to storm borders into Spanish territory.

Eleven people have been killed in the last 10 days as large groups of migrants tried to get into Europe by crossing the razor wire fences around Melilla and its sister outpost, Ceuta.

In a radical change of policy, Spain sent 70 migrants back to its neighbour late on Thursday after it reactivated a 1992 accord with Rabat to allow it to send back sub-Saharan African migrants who have entered Spain via Morocco.

Spain's decision to return some migrants was criticised by human rights groups, particularly after the humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had found 500 African migrants dumped deep in the desert by Moroccan police.

MSF spokesman Carlos Ugarte said the group, left in the desert by Moroccan police, included children and pregnant women. It treated more than 50 people with injuries from anti-riot weapons and cuts from the wire fence and sent six with serious injuries to hospital.

Amnesty International spokesman Angel Gonzalo said the organisation was asking Spain not to send people to Morocco. "It seems clear that what Morocco does with immigrants is to take them to the desert."

Mario da Silva, who left Guinea Bissau two years ago and arrived in Melilla last month, said he and his companions at the overcrowded Red Cross centre there were frightened they might be the next to end up in the desert.

"People could die. I went through the desert the first time and it's very dangerous," said Mr da Silva, whose travelling companion died in the desert trying to reach Spain.

Sari Mohammed from Burkina Faso, a bandage on his hand covering cuts from the razor wire, was desperate to stay.

"I left to save myself, to save my family. If they send me back what am I going to do?" the 20-year-old said.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega defended Spain's decision to send some migrants from sub-Saharan Africa back to Morocco, saying they had been returned legally.

"The Kingdom of Morocco has its processes and its protocols... supervised by the human rights organisations which work with Morocco," she told a news conference in Madrid.

Moroccan Communication Minister Nabil Benabdallah also dismissed the criticism as "baseless".

"Morocco respects international standards regulating these matters within the strict safeguard of human rights to which the authorities... are committed," he said.

A top Moroccan diplomat was quoted yesterday urging the European Union to put pressure on Algeria to stop migrants crossing into Morocco.

When Moroccan police arrest African migrants they take them back to the Algerian border, from where most try to walk back.

Amnesty International said it was investigating whether those who had been sent to Morocco had had access to lawyers and translators and had been given the opportunity to apply for asylum before being expelled, as demanded by national and international law.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos travels to Morocco on Monday for talks on a new immigration agreement.