This boring golf game has a disturbing backdrop

Would-be immigrants stand atop a boarder fence separating Morocco from Melilla. Source: AFP

THIS is the astonishing sight of African migrants scrambling over a fence into Spain while golfers calmly enjoy a game just metres away.

The remarkable image underscores the dramatic gap between the haves and have-nots in the region.

It was taken on Wednesday, when 200 immigrants rushed the Moroccan border in a desperate bid for a new life.

An extraordinary image shows golfers playing just metres from fence-climbing migrants. Picture: Prodein Source: AFP

Hundreds of African immigrants make a coordinated assault on the barrier in the Spanish enclave of Melilla, ending with 10 injured. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

Nine were injured during the scramble, with 70 staying on top of the fence for hours, waiting for an opportunity to evade authorities.

It is the latest in a spate of rushes on the North African border, which have thrown Spain's draconian immigration laws and heavy-handed police tactics into the spotlight.

Last week, a video emerged that appeared to show Spanish security forces in the city of Melilla beating a migrant unconscious as he hung from the fence, before handing him back to Moroccan authorities.

Local NGO Prodein, which filmed the video, identified the man as a 23-year-old Cameroonian named Danny.

Spanish officers filmed beating an African asylum seeker, one of 300 attempting to cross the border at Melilla. Vision from rights group Prodein. Source: LiveLeak

Jose Palazon, Prodein's director, accused officers of "a high level of violence", saying the migrant "should have had medical assistance".

"The whole thing was absolutely illegal. It is a monument of contempt for the law, morality and ethics," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Spanish government delegation in Melilla, Irene Flores, said the migrant was not injured and had offered "passive resistance".

"The Civil Guard acted in scrupulous fulfilment of the law," she said.

Spanish police carry the limp body of a 23-year-old Cameroonian through a border service gate, after apparently beaten while trying to climb the fence. Source: AFP

On February 6 around 15 migrants drowned in Moroccan waters while trying to swim from a beach in Morocco to Ceuta.

Witnesses accused Spanish security forces of firing rubber bullets at the migrants in the water. The government admitted using rubber bullets but denied its forces had targeted the migrants directly.

Spain said on Wednesday that it would pass a legal amendment authorising police to expel migrants who climb the fence around Melilla and Ceuta, two Spanish territories bordering Morocco, which have Europe's only land borders with Africa.

The ministry said 2000 migrants have made it across the fences in roughly 60 attempts this year.

But Amnesty International warned Spain yesterday it was breaking international law by instantly deporting the migrants who cross over.

A member of the Spanish Guardia Civil intercepts the would-be immigrants. Source: AFP

Amnesty is now one of many human rights groups that have attacked Spain for its "on-the-spot deportations" of African migrants who have stormed the seven-metre, triple-layer border fence.

They say such deportations are illegal since migrants have the right to be registered and given the chance to apply for asylum if they are fleeing persecution.

The government denies that migrants who climb the fence should be considered as having reached Spanish territory.

Thousands of migrants fleeing war and hardship try each year to cross the fences.

Others try to sail across the 15-kilometre strait from Morocco to Spain in makeshift boats and inflatable dinghies, or to smuggle themselves into the country hidden in vehicles.

Spain has been accused of acting illegally in its treatment of African immigrants. Source: AFP

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