On 6 February 2014, a group of around 250 people managed to reach the vicinity of Tarajal beach to swim across the breakwater and reach the Ceuta side from Morocco. Faced with this, the Guardia Civil:
considered that the lives of these people were in danger and notified the Red Cross and the emergency services to come to their rescue.
assisted the people whose lives were in danger at sea and expelled them across the land border to Morocco. intervened with riot control equipment against the people in the water to prevent them from reaching the
Spanish coast. As a result of this police action at least 15 people died by drowning.
The text says that "at least 15 people were killed". The text said “at least” because:
the people dead on the Moroccan side were not counted. Only the victims whose bodies arrived on the Spanish side were counted.
because there may have been fewer people, but migrant support groups always inflate the death toll to generate scaremongering, but their sources are unreliable.
the deaths of the Civil Guards who took part in the intervention are not counted.
The March for Dignity held annually in Ceuta since 2015 and which brings together every February hundreds of people and groups who come from the peninsula aims to:
to honour the performance of the Spanish Civil Guard in the defence of national borders.
to keep this day as a day of remembrance, to raise awareness in order to find alternatives to the policies of death at the borders and to denounce the permanent violation of human rights at the borders.
to visit the city of Ceuta, make a boat trip and do some sightseeing.
One of the DENOUNCEMENTS contained in the manifesto of the IX March for Dignity (Tarajal 2022) is:
a solution to administrative irregularity, since the absence of a regulatory framework that guarantees this potentially exposes all people to a context of exploitation in all its spheres.
the lack of protection for the State security forces that have to defend the national borders of Ceuta and Melilla every day from mafias and organised terrorist groups.
the constant criminalisation of migrants, who, without having committed any crime, are stigmatised and exposed to even more violations of their rights.
One of the DEMANDS stated in the manifesto of the 9th March for Dignity (Tarajal 2022) is:
the elimination of borders between countries around the world and freedom of movement.
the closure of Detention Centres for Foreigners; an administrative offense should not be the cause for the confinement in racist prisons in inhumane conditions with the excuse of materializing the expulsion from a territory.
that bureaucracy, invisibility and lack of sensitivity to the deaths of people at the Southern Border is yet another tool of oppression for the families of the thousands of people who are missing or at the bottom of our seas and oceans by preventing or denying them the opportunity to identify or bury their loved ones with dignity.