From the 23rd to the 25th of June the fifth Maghrebi Social Forum on migration is taking place in the city of Nador under the slogan “Never again Chinatown. For a Maghreb free of all hatred, xenophobia and racism”.
The choice of place and date corresponds to the regrettable events and the cruel, discriminatory and degrading treatment suffered by migrants on 24 June 2022 at the border post of Barrio Chino, between Nador and Melilla.
An Amnesty International report states that “on the morning of Friday 24 June, between 1,500 and 2,000 refugees and migrants, mostly Sudanese, attempted to cross the border between Morocco and Melilla. In order to prevent their passage through the border post of Barrio Chino, the Moroccan and Spanish authorities committed crimes under international law”.
As a result of the actions of the Spanish and Moroccan security forces, at least 37 people died, and many more were reportedly injured in various ways. On that day, the Spanish security forces summarily and contrary to international human rights standards returned at least 470 people. The whereabouts of at least 77 people are still unknown in Moroccan territory, without the families having been able to obtain any information to date, according to information from the international organisation.
Precisely one year after this event, the Maghreb Social Forum will debate, in one of its main themes, what has happened subsequently, if there has been reparation for the victims and, above all, if anything has changed on this border.
The second axis is the discussion on how to counteract the xenophobic and racist discourse against migrants and what measures are being taken (or should be taken) both in the Maghreb countries and in those of the European Union with respect to the violation of human rights suffered by those who, for various reasons, leave their places of origin in search of better living conditions.
Migration policies in the Maghreb and the European Union will also be analysed in detail.
In this event, migrants will have the floor. It will be a space for meeting and convergence in order to subsequently take action.
The Maghreb Social Forum has previously been held in Brussels (2010), Oujda (2012), Monastir (2014) and Tangiers (2016).