Name: 歐洲最堅固的邊境在非洲 (Europe's most fortified border is in Africa)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T07:46:06.000Z
Duration: 10 min 53 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

If you zoom in to Morocco, you'll see a
tiny wedge of land that stands out from

基礎被動語態

its surroundings. This little bit of land
is surrounded by one of the most

Right outside the border you'll find makeshift

forest camps, where people spend their
days and nights evading the police and

preparing to rush the border, usually in
large groups, with hopes of jumping over

This peculiar scene plays out because
this piece of land, while in the

continent of Africa, is actually a piece
of Europe.

This small piece of land is called Melilla.
It's one of two Spanish enclaves in

Morocco, marking the only borders that
Europe shares with the continent of Africa.

Spain conquered Melilla in the late
1400s as part of its rapid global expansion.

This region of northern Africa
changed hands many times over the

following decades, but Spain kept hold of
Melilla.

period was winding down and great powers
were ceding their colonies, Morocco had just

declared independence, but even then
Spain held onto its enclave.

Today, around 86,000 people live in Melilla
and when you're there you might as well

be in mainland Spain. The city is
designed with the distinctive Spanish

architectural style and residents speak
Spanish. They pay in Euros.

You're only reminded that you're not in mainland
Europe when you walk to the peripheries

of this city, to find one of the most
fortified border walls on the planet.

A seven mile barrier with layers of
protection

The first layer is a 20-foot metal fence,
followed by a second fence with a

flexible top, which makes it harder to
climb. Below this second fence you have

barbed wire netting, strong and dense
webs, then comes another taller fence

with a flexible top section and more
barbed wire. Then you're on the Moroccan

side where, you have a 6.5
foot ditch and then a double fence with

you guessed it, more barbed wire. There
are lookout posts and every inch of the

border is monitored by video
surveillance.

barrier exists, you have to cross over
into the Moroccan town of Nador and

then into the forest in the hills
surrounding the enclave.

These migrants are mostly from
sub-Saharan Africa and they all have

different motives for leaving their
homelands.

plan for the day when they'll try to
cross into Melilla.

In response to this intense security, the migrants have

developed a technique that relies on
overpowering the border guards with

The groups range in
size, but are nearly always in the

hundreds. Most get caught right away on
the Moroccan side where they face border

agents who are not shy about using force.
Those who make it past the first few

layers, onto the Spanish section of the
barrier are also thrown back immediately

or detained, but because of their large
numbers a few will inevitably slip past

the guards. As soon as they put their
feet on the ground in Melilla, they are

technically in Europe and are guaranteed
certain protections under European Union law.

But they still have to run a hundred
meters to an immigration center, where

they can be taken in and given
protection from immediate deportation.

Arrivals to these enclaves came to a
head in 2014, when Spain decided it was

finally time to double down on its
effort to fortify this border. This was

mainly in response to the influx of
migrants attempting to get into Europe,

fleeing from conflicts in Africa and the
Middle East.

"Biggest wave refugees in modern history"

"fleeing brutal violence in the Middle
East"

"cross over European borders by the
hundreds of thousands"

"in overcrowded boats, many drowning along the way"

crisis was to focus on the borders of
its enclaves in Africa, redoubling the

efforts to keep migrants out of this
little slice of Europe. The year after

the 2014 migration crisis, attempts to
jump the fence dropped by 67%.

Spain didn't make these numbers drop on their
own. One of the things you'll notice when

you look at this wall, is that Moroccan
military and police are also guarding

this border. The year of the migration
crisis, Morocco built these two extra

"But authorities say dense new anticlimb mesh

stopped the latest to make the attempt
in their tracks"

take the responsibility of building a
barrier and standing guard at Spain's border?

Turns out they have real
incentives to do so. Morocco has what's

called advanced status partnership with
Europe, which gives them economic and

political advantages in trade and
political affairs. The European Union

accounts for more than half of Morocco's
international trade and the EU also

provides Morocco with billions of Euros
in aid for security and development, so

the Moroccans in an effort to stay on
good terms with their northern neighbor,

take on the job of protecting Spain's
border. And they take their job very seriously.

Migrants had always had their forest camps right here,
right outside the city on this hill.

This was their camp for years and this
is the place where they used to regroup

and prepare a jump, until just a few
months ago when the Moroccan military

Now the migrants can't return and they have gone

to find another refuge, which is on a
hill 12 kilometers from here. Moroccan authorities

have started routinely raiding the camps.

But they don't deport them from
Morocco, they have other less

resource-intensive ways of keeping these
migrants from coordinating a large

enough group for a jump. The police were
here for three hours this morning, they

basically came in and stole a bunch of
stuff, they kind of disrupted these tents

and messed with these people's houses.
They harassed the women in violent ways.

They basically came here just to flex
their muscles and say you know we're in

About once a month the Moroccan authorities

round up the migrants and send them to
other parts of Morocco that are far away

from Melillah, preventing them from
gathering in a sufficient group to blitz the fence.

The Moroccan authorities are not concerned with keeping these

migrants out of Morocco, they're trying
to keep them from getting to Europe.

They do in many respects, a lot of Spain's and
Europe's dirty work, with respect to

blocking people whose interest is to
cross.

that everyone in these camps is from
sub-Saharan Africa, basically countries

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歐洲最堅固的邊境在非洲 (Europe's most fortified border is in Africa)

effort

basically

crisis

journey