Lost in Melilla: Syrian refugees despair as Europe closes door

While in Britain, Spain's antagonism towards the historic strategic British naval base and enclave at Gibraltar disturbs diplomatic and economic relations with its EU partner, little is said of Spain's own enclaves on the coast of North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. In the following Reuters report there is news of their refugee centres which are being overwhelmed with Syrian Christians and Muslims alike, hoping for a new and safe future in Europe. Spain is taking refugees but Britain and certain other northern European countries are not disposed to help - despite their military and diplomatic interventions which have helped to worsen the crisis.

* Syrian refugees find European dreams thwarted in enclave
* Spanish town on Moroccan coast hosts hundreds of refugees
* EU struggling for common approach to Mediterranean migrants

By Julien Toyer and Juan Medina
MELILLA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Yahya Khedr has travelled for more than two years, through five countries and with six forged passports to get his family from the war-ravaged Syrian city of Homs to Europe.

But now that his wife and five children have reached Melilla, a small Spanish enclave on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, their chance of a European life seems as remote as ever.

"People make it to Melilla hoping to find Europe," said Khedr, who before his country's war owned a successful European truck-parts import business. "But here, it's an open-air jail."

Armed guards and razor wire lining the 12-km (7.5-mile) frontier around the town have long discouraged Africans fleeing poverty and conflict from seeing Melilla as a gateway to Europe, 180 km (110 miles) away across open water.

But desperation has driven hundred of Syrians like Khedr to brave long journeys - and Moroccan crime gangs that prey on migrants - to fetch up at the gates, turning the port town of 80,000 into a new pressure point for waves of destitute people struggling to reach the safety and prosperity of Europe.

Read the full report here:
Lost in Melilla: Syrian refugees despair as Europe closes door