"'Black locusts' are taking over Morocco!" So ran the September 12, 2005 headline of al-Shamal, an Arabic-language Tangier newspaper, describing the forays of masses of in-transit sub-Saharan Africans trying to scale the security fences separating Morocco from the Spanish-ruled enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Moroccan authorities immediately banned al-Shamal for employing this racist language, but the press on both sides of the Mediterranean continued to use terms like “massive invasion” and “plague” to denote the sub-Saharan migrants’ repeated attempts in September and early October to escape from Africa into the territory of the European Union.

Were it not for the tragic fate of the would-be immigrants—both men and women, some accompanied by infants—the audacious storming of the fences might have attracted little international attention. Of those attempting to enter Fortress Europe in Ceuta on the night of September 28, five were killed and over 100 wounded. Six more fell at the Melilla border on October 6, and the total death toll from the forays is estimated at 15. Some of the dead were reportedly killed by Moroccan and Spanish fire; others are said to have fallen or been thrown down from the barriers.

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