Hundreds of migrants storm border at Spanish exclave

Eleven African migrants were injured today when hundreds stormed a border fence surrounding a Spanish exclave on the northern coast of Morocco trying to enter Spanish territory, officials said.
Some 500 migrants stormed the border fence of Melilla -- one of two Spanish-administered territories inside the north African country -- in two different locations in the early hours today, Spanish government officials said.
About 100 people managed to enter Melilla, but police subsequently caught 95, including 11 who claimed to be minors, the office of the Spanish government representative in Melilla said in a statement.
Eleven migrants were injured in the assault and were taken to hospital in Melilla, including one who broke both his wrists.

The Moroccan interior ministry said about 30 people were injured in the border assault and treated at a hospital in the Mediterranean port of Nador near Melilla.
Melilla, home to around 80,000 people, has one of the European Union's two land borders with Africa, along with the other Spanish exclave of Ceuta on Morocco's northern tip.

Morocco regards both Ceuta and Melilla as its territory and considers Spain an occupier.
Spain says the cities, which are remnants of its colonial empire, have been Spanish for more than 400 years.
Spanish authorities have reported a surge in attempts to scale the fence since a crackdown on arrivals via Spain's Canary Islands and in the wake of violent unrest in northern Africa over recent years.

On March 11, some 25 people were injured as they attempted to pass the fence. A Moroccan human rights group said that one of them, a Cameroonian migrant of 30, died of his injuries in Morocco.
Rights groups say many migrants are camping in the wild on the Moroccan side waiting for a chance to cross.
Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders this year closed its projects in Morocco in protest at the treatment of migrants who are brought there by traffickers and allegedly abused by Spanish and Moroccan police.