:::: "Human avalanches" ::::

... this is what Spanish media use to refer to the hundreds of desperate Africans that currently try to cross the border fences in Melilla and Ceuta nearly on a daily basis, in search of a better life.

Melilla and Ceuta are two Spanish enclaves in North Africa, bordering Morocco, and seen by the African refugees as a door to the European Union. Morocco has long claimed these areas for themselves but with no success. Spain meanwhile has constructed a razor wire fence worth €33 million in an attempt to reduce illegal immigration and smuggling. The pictures I saw on TV are heartwrecking ... hundreds of people with nothing apart from what they wear on their bodies, climbing up the fence with selfmade ladders and jumping down on the other side from a height of about 3 metres, many of them hurting themselves in the attempt, or brutally being beaten by the border police. Quite a few people have died revently. Those who manage to get to the next police station may stay in Spain (did not understand though if permanently or only temporarily...).

Read more in a recent CNN article.