Page 8 - aruba-today-20190831

A8 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 31 auguSt 2019
Over 150 migrants in Morocco climb fences to Spanish enclave

MADRID (AP) — At least 155 vessel returned to a port in
migrants from Sub-Saharan Cadiz after picking up the
Africa successfully entered migrants in Italy earlier this
the Spanish enclave of week.
Ceuta after climbing over They are part of a larger
fences or walking across a group of more than 150
border post separating the rescued in the central
territory from Morocco, au- Mediterranean Sea in ear-
thorities said Friday. ly August by the Spanish
Seven of the migrants aid group Open Arms but
clung to the top of a 6-me- blocked from disembarking
ter-tall (19.5 feet) fence for by Italian authorities.
over two hours until law en- Spain, Portugal, Germany,
forcement officers brought France and Luxembourg
them down and handed have agreed to accept
them over to their Moroc- them and an Italian pros-
can counterparts, said the ecutor ordered their emer-
Spanish central govern- gency evacuation after 19
ment's delegation in Ceu- days at sea amid worsen-
ta. Spanish Guardia Civil officers cordon off the area as sub-Saharan migrants stand on top of a me- ing conditions.
A larger group of around tallic fence that divides Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Spain, Friday, Aug. 30, 2019. Spain's caretaker govern-
250 attempted the breach Associated Press ment said that the migrants
simultaneously at a break- have been granted a spe-
water where the 8.2-ki- spokesman said that a doz- cally stay there while they wire and instead raise the cial entry authorization and
lometer (5-mile) double en Civil Guard officers were apply for asylum or wait for fences to 10 meters (32 will be informed of their
fence meets the sea. Most treated for slight injuries af- an opportunity to travel to feet) and add more surveil- right to apply for asylum
of them were from West Af- ter being hit with stones peninsular Spain. lance and technology to at a temporary processing
rica's Guinea. and sticks. One migrant Friday's was the first crossing stop the breaches. center.
Morocco's official news with cuts from the barbed- attempt in Ceuta in over a There is no official timing for Spain says it already res-
agency MAP quoted local wire topping the fences year. In July, over 200 peo- the changes, said the Ceu- cues and takes in more
authorities in the northern was taken to the local hos- ple tried to cross into Mel- ta delegation's spokesman, migrants than any other
M'diq Fnideq prefecture pital and seven more were illa, Spain's other North Afri- who wasn't authorized to nation in Europe. That's de-
as saying that 400 migrants treated by the Red Cross. can enclave, though most be identified in media re- spite a 42.5% drop in arrivals
staying in the country il- Video footage showed the of them were stopped by ports. by mid-August compared
legally had attempted to migrants erupting in jubi- the authorities. Also on Friday, 14 men and to the same period last
cross the fences and that lee and screaming "Boza! The handling of security on a woman arrived in south- year — less than 14,600 so
90 of them had been im- Boza!" — meaning "victory" both sides of the border has ern Spain on a navy ship af- far this year compared with
mediately arrested. Nine of in Western Africa's Fulani been criticized by human ter their group was kept at more than 25,300 in 2018.
them were slightly injured language — as they walked rights organizations. Spain's sea for weeks in one of the In the same period, the
and transferred to a hospi- or ran toward a temporary Socialist government last latest European spats over number of boats making
tal. migrant processing center year pledged to take down the migrants' plight. the crossing fell from 1,054
A Ceuta delegation in Ceuta. The migrants typi- the controversial barbed The Spanish Navy's Audaz to 542.q

German far-right hopeful faces new extremism claims

Associated Press 1 regional election in Bran- radicals abroad, puts the
BERLIN (AP) — A regional denburg, said in an email boot into our democratic
leader of the far-right Alter- that any suggestion he was values," Olaf Scholz said on
native for Germany party linked to the flag incident Twitter.
on Friday dismissed new was "simply a lie." "The evidence against
reports of ties to extremists Earlier this week, public AfD's chief in Brandenburg
groups that opponents say broadcaster rbb reported weighs heavily," added
should disqualify him from that the 46-year-old at- Scholz, who is running to
being elected in a week- tended a camp organized lead the center-left Social
end vote. by the HJ, a neo-Nazi youth Democrats, urging Bran-
Andreas Kalbitz, the party's movement, in 1993. Kalbitz denburgers to vote against
leader in the eastern state has previously acknowl- him.Recent polls put the rul-
of Brandenburg, confirmed edged attending a camp ing Social Democrats neck-
in a statement reports by by the group's successor and-neck with AfD in Bran-
weekly Der Spiegel that he organization in 2007, but denburg, though other par-
attended a 2007 far-right downplayed this and oth- ties have made clear they
event in Athens, saying he File-Picture taken Aug.4, 2019 shows Andreas Kalbitz, chairman er ties to known extrem- won't consider working with
took part out of "curiosity." of the AfD in Brandenburg, in Cottbus, Germany. ist groups, insisting that he the far right. A separate re-
But Kalbitz denied being Associated Press abides by the German gional election takes place
part of a delegation that Constitution. Sunday in the neighboring
included members of Ger- ism. flag on a balcony, where- Germany's finance minister state of Saxony, where AfD
many's NPD party, which Der Spiegel quoted a Ger- upon Greek anarchists fire- criticized Kalbitz on Friday. is challenging Chancellor
German authorities have man police report say- bombed the hotel. "Whoever surrounds them- Angela Merkel's center-
tried unsuccessfully to ban ing the NPD delegation in Kalbitz, whose AfD party selves with neo-Nazis and right Christian Democrats
on the grounds of extrem- Greece draped a swastika could come first in the Sept. marches with right-wing for first place.q