Spanish PM blames traffickers, migrants for deaths at border

By JOSEPH WILSON and ARITZ PARRA
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s prime minister is defending the way Moroccan and Spanish police repelled migrants last week as they tried to cross the shared border into the north African enclave of Melilla. Pedro Sánchez again depicted the crossing attempt in which at least 23 people died as “an attack on Spain’s borders.” Authorities in Morocco have blamed the deaths on a “stampede.” Nonprofits and human rights groups have deplored the treatment the migrants received at the hands of police on both sides. But they have also accused Spanish and European Union officials of outsourcing border controls to Morocco and other Mediterranean states. Sánchez has been trying to improve ties with Morocco following an acrimonious diplomatic dispute over Western Sahara.