EU, Morocco renew migration deal after Spanish border deaths

By RENATA BRITO and TARIK EL-BARAKAH
Associated Press

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — The European Commission has vowed to step up its work with Morocco to fight human smugglers who are using “new, extremely violent methods” to get migrants into Spain. The announcement Friday comes two weeks after 23 people died at the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla. The EU’s commissioner for home affairs and Spain’s interior minister  met with Morocco’s interior minister in Rabat to discuss the events of June 24, when hundreds of sub-Saharan migrants and asylum-seekers attempted to storm through a border post and scale a border fence. Twenty-three people died and over 200 were injured, including many law enforcement officers.