Spanish police fire rubber bullets as migrants try to swim to Spain
- 10 years ago
This is video from February 7, just released by Spanish media.
It shows Spanish border patrol shooting rubber bullets at migrants trying to enter Spanish waters.
There were some 200 migrants in the incident, all trying to swim around a man-made breakwater that separates Morocco and Spain.
Several were drowned in the Mediterranean.
Before the video was publicly released, Spain's Interior Minster, Jorge Fernandez, told parliament the rubber bullets were never intended to hit the migrants.
They were fired, he said, as a deterrent.
(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JORGE FERNANDEZ, SPAIN'S INTERIOR MINISTER, SAYING:
"I insist, when they considered there could be any risk on people, an order to abandon the operation was given to stop using the material."
This video was released by Spanish police showing migrants throwing stones at the border fence on February 7.
It doesn't show the moment the migrants entered the sea to swim around breakwater toward
It shows Spanish border patrol shooting rubber bullets at migrants trying to enter Spanish waters.
There were some 200 migrants in the incident, all trying to swim around a man-made breakwater that separates Morocco and Spain.
Several were drowned in the Mediterranean.
Before the video was publicly released, Spain's Interior Minster, Jorge Fernandez, told parliament the rubber bullets were never intended to hit the migrants.
They were fired, he said, as a deterrent.
(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JORGE FERNANDEZ, SPAIN'S INTERIOR MINISTER, SAYING:
"I insist, when they considered there could be any risk on people, an order to abandon the operation was given to stop using the material."
This video was released by Spanish police showing migrants throwing stones at the border fence on February 7.
It doesn't show the moment the migrants entered the sea to swim around breakwater toward