Calls for inquiry as video appears to show Guardia Civil boat knocking at least one person out of dinghy bound for Spain

Calls for inquiry as video appears to show Guardia Civil boat knocking at least one person out of dinghy bound for Spain

Human rights campaigners in Morocco and Spain have called on Spanish authorities to launch an investigation after a video appeared to show a Spanish police boat briefly mounting a small dinghy carrying people towards the coast of Spain.

The incident took place on Sunday as a vessel carrying four people approached the Spanish semi-exclave of Melilla. The video appeared to show the larger, more powerful Guardia Civil patrol boat veering towards the Zodiac inflatable, making several manoeuvres before skimming over the top of the boat, causing at least one person to fall out of the small vessel.

  • mods_mum@lemmy.todayEnglish
    1042·
    3 months ago

    I’m 45yo, grew up in Poland. I will never forget walking with my father near Polish-Czechoslovakian border when he said to not get too close to the border or I get shot. No one thought it was racist or bigoted to defend your borders against people who try to cross it illegally. It’s interesting how drastically this has changed. I still can’t say if it’s for the better or worse because both approaches have risks and benefits.

    • floofloofEnglish
      302·
      3 months ago

      Back then many people thought the way borders in eastern Europe were policed was pretty brutal and cruel. It wasn’t like everyone thought it was just fine for border guards to shoot people on sight.

      • mods_mum@lemmy.todayEnglish
        1120·
        3 months ago

        I still think there are scenarios where brutal is the right way. For Poland, Russia is an existential threat. What they’ve been doing for a while is piggybacking on the increased immigrant traffic between Belarus and Poland and inject their people to stir shit and makes things worse. If Poland indiscriminately let every undocumented immigrant in we’d be at risk of serious internal issues, sabotages, espionage etc. I will probably get down-voted into oblivion for this opinion but it’s 2024 so maybe I’m stuck in the 80s mentally.

        https://www.politico.eu/article/polish-soldier-dies-after-clash-with-migrants-on-belarus-border/

        There was a large group of Chechen men who didn’t really look like they were fleeing from anything. All big dudes with evident military backgrounds. It’s just scary when you have a neighbour like this.

        • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
          185·
          3 months ago

          maybe I’m stuck in the 80s mentally

          Well at least you admit you have a problem, and that’s the first step to improving! I’m proud of you.

          Generally, in civilized countries, very few or no crimes involve the death penalty, and certainly none of them deserve immediate summary execution (self-defense against grave bodily harm notwithstanding).

    • limonfiesta@lemmy.worldEnglish
      223·
      3 months ago

      There’s way more history and nuance with the current migration crisis facing Europe than I feel like delving into with this comment, so I’m just going to leave you with a quick note about why you’re being downvoted:

      Intentionally trying to capsizing migrants so they drown isn’t the same as “being called racist”. Forget whatever opinions or beliefs motivated these actions, this is attempted murder, at best.

      So whether or not your commentary would be reasonable on an article discussing immigration policy, it’s irrelevant to this article. Which again, is about Spanish police trying to drown migrants by intentionally driving their police boat at, and then over, their small dinghy.

      • EatATaco@lemm.eeEnglish
        25·
        3 months ago

        Intentionally trying to capsizing migrants so they drown isn’t the same as “being called racist”.

        Did we watch the same video? They could have easily hit them multiple times before the collision that saying they intentionally did so makes no sense. Adding in that they were intentionally trying to drown them is also ridiculously presumptuous.

    • mods_mum@lemmy.todayEnglish
      726·
      3 months ago

      I’m getting down-voted for suggesting border protection is a nuanced issue. What a reddit moment.

      • Buffalox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        281·
        3 months ago

        No you are downvoted for suggesting that executing people on sight, just for crossing a border, is a nuanced issue.
        The normal thing to do is to arrest people.

        In the 80’s people in Poland were hostages of a totalitarian system, and you may have suffered a kind of Stockholm Syndrome.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        161·
        3 months ago

        I think it’s more the position you take that the moral stand on killing people at the border is nuanced.

        Killing people for approaching your border is always been wrong. It’s not like they’re coming over in tanks.

        Stop them, lock them up, send them home. If a couple of them make it past you it’s not the end of the world.

        The only reason this boat did what they did is because they didn’t think they were being observed.