It’s a video making waves across social media.
Spanish national police on Sunday intercepted a boat carrying migrants attempting to illegally reach Spanish territory in North Africa, actually severing the migrant vessel in a collision, the U.K. Telegraph reported Wednesday.
And while there were, unbelievably, no serious injuries, the images have caused a storm in cyberspace.
Watch: Migrant dinghy crushed by Spanish police boat
The Guardia Civil can be seen chasing the speedboat and trying to block the path when it severs it in half
Read more https://t.co/5Pi2OAXQEv pic.twitter.com/DbFgnp4Wp1
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 28, 2024
According to The Telegraph, the Spanish boat was part of the country’s Guardia Civil, patrolling the coast off Melilla, a small Spanish enclave bordering Morocco in North Africa.
It was chasing a boat carrying four passengers and attempting to stop it from reaching ground when the collision occurred.
According to The Telegraph, those on board the migrant vessel were rescued immediately. Only one required brief hospitalization.
A spokesman for a party in Spain’s left-wing coalition government called the incident an “intolerable human disaster.”
Reactions to the video ranged from congratulating the authorities for the undeniably harsh measure to criticizing the extremity of the move.
“That’s how you stop illegal immigrants from illegally crossing into your country,” declared a social media post published by Turning Point UK, a British offshoot of the conservative American group Turning Point USA.
Spanish boat police take out a migrant dinghy.
That’s how you stop illegal migrants from illegally crossing into your country. pic.twitter.com/cICaO6WWRf
— Turning Point UK (@TPointUK) August 28, 2024
“Everyone has had enough,” wrote Tommy Robinson, a British conservative political activist.
Spanish police boat chases down and runs over migrant dinghy sending occupants flying.
Everyone has had enough. pic.twitter.com/CSPsZbby7b
— Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) August 29, 2024
The migrants’ boat appeared to have originated in Morocco.
According to the left-wing British publication The Guardian, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights “violent and dangerous.”
And Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of the group Human Rights Watch, used a social media post to call the police action “dangerously aggressive.”
A video “appeared to show a Spanish police boat briefly mounting a small dinghy carrying people towards the coast of Spain” — a dangerously aggressive move to stop migrants. https://t.co/UXGtxhlJN0
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) August 27, 2024
Moroccan authorities have said they are investigating the encounter, according to The Telegraph.
Spain has apparently decided there is no need to, the publication reported.
“Spain’s two enclaves on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla, share the only land borders of the European Union with Africa,” The Telegraph noted. “The enclaves sporadically experience waves of attempted crossings by migrants trying to reach Europe.”