Another flashpoint has emerged in Europe’s long-simmering migrant crisis. Torre Pacheco, a small town in southern Spain, has been the scene of days of fighting between right-wing groups and mainly Moroccan migrants. While a tentative peace has been restored, tensions remain.
On 9 July, a 68-year-old local man, Domingo Tomas, was confronted by three young men during an early morning walk. One of the trio – all were described as being of ‘Moroccan origin’ and in their early 20s – brutally beat him. Images of Tomas’s bloodied and bruised face quickly went viral.
Agitators descended on Torre Pacheco in the days afterwards. Calls for a ‘Maghrebi hunt’ – essentially, a hunt for North African immigrants – spread on far-right forums. On the night of 11 July,
thugs clashed with masked Moroccan youths, leaving several people injured and a trail of damage. More fighting and vandalism – including the destruction of a kebab shop owned by a Muslim local – took place over the following nights.
Order was largely restored on 14 July after police stopped cars carrying weapons from entering Torre Pacheco. Fourteen arrests have been made since the unrest began and a heavy police presence remains in the town.
Politicians from Spain’s left-wing government, led by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, have rightly condemned the far-right thuggery. Indeed, there appear to be strong grounds to think that extremist groups played a role in stoking up much of the violence that unfolded.
Yet the government has had little to say about the organised violence from the other side of those clashes. Despite police ordering people to stay indoors, some migrants clashed with police and possibly also locals – not just with the organised far right.
No comments:
Post a Comment