Melilla is a Spanish exclave in North Africa, located on the northernmost tip of Maghreb, on the Mediterranean coast. Traditionally considered part of Andalusia for historical reasons, it was administered as part of Málaga province prior to the March 14, 1995 Statute of Autonomy, and was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 1994 it had a population of 63,670. Its population consists of Christians, Muslims, Jews and a small minority of Hindus. Both Spanish and Tamazight are spoken there.
ISO 3166-1 reserves EA for Melilla and Ceuta.
Political status
Since 1982 Morroco has claimed Melilla, along with Ceuta and various small Spanish islands off the coast of Africa (Plazas de soberanía) and the Canary Islands, drawing comparisons with Spain's territorial claim to Gibraltar. The Spanish government rejects these comparisons (as do the inhabitants of the cities), on the grounds that both Ceuta and Melilla are integral parts of the Spanish state, whereas Gibraltar, an overseas territory, is not considered part of the United Kingdom. The Gibraltarians, for their part, say that there is simply no comparison, for they are not Spanish and are economically and politically self-sufficient.
This and Ceuta are the last two European territories located in mainland Africa.
Economy
The principal industry is fishing; cross-border commerce (legal or smuggled) and Spanish and European grants and wages are the other income sources.
Melilla is heavily dependent on Morocco. All of its fruit, vegetables, and fish are imported across the border. About 36,000 Moroccans come into the city daily to work, shop, or sell goods.
History
Melilla was a Phoenician and later Punic establishment under the name of Rusadir. Later it became a part of the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana.
As centuries passed, it went through Vandal, Byzantine and Hispano-Visigothic hands. Melilla was on the frontier of the Kingdom of Tlemcen and the Kingdom of Fes when the Juan Alfonso Perez de Guzman El Bueno 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia reconquered it in 1497, a few years after Castille had taken control of the last Nasrid kingdom of Granada.
General Francisco Franco used the city as one of his staging grounds for his rebellion in 1936, and a statue of him is still prominently featured.
Architecture
Melilla sports the only Gothic arch in Africa.
During the change from the 19th to the 20th century, Melilla was prosperous. A new bourgeois class expressed its prestige in the architectural style of Modernisme, the Catalan version of Art Nouveau, which was then in vogue in Spain. The workshops inspired by Catalan architect, Enrique Nieto, continued in the modernist style, even after it went out of fashion elsewhere. So Melilla has the second most important concentration of Modernist works in Spain, after Barcelona.
Multiculturalism
Melilla has been praised as an exemplar of multiculturalism, how people of three different religions can live side-by-side in harmony within a small area. However, the Christian majority has been shrinking while the number of Muslims has been steadily increasing to nearly 50% of the population, and Jews have been leaving for years (from 20% of the population before World War II to less than 2% today). These changes in population have called into question the city's "Spanishness." Almost all of its residents consider themselves Spanish, although many Muslims of Moroccan origin also call themselves Berbers.
However, in contrast to its image as a multicultural utopia, the Muslim population suffers the highest unemployment rate, the lowest rate of high school graduates, and the lowest representation in the city government. Many Muslims complain that Tamazight is looked down upon as a second-class language. It is not taught in schools and is rarely heard on the state television station. There has only been one Muslim president, Mustafa Aberchan of the Coalition for Melilla political party, installed in 1999 and whose term lasted only one year before his being ousted. Aberchan claims that the current president, Juan Jose Imbroda, once said that, "Melilla was not 'ready' for a Muslim president." The coalition currently holds seven out of 25 seats in the local parliament.
Members of Imbroda's conservative Popular Party, meanwhile, counter that the coalition promotes religious sectarianism. Imbroda himself insists that Melilla will never be ceded to Morocco "because no one wants to go backwards."
Immigration
There is considerable pressure by African refugees to enter Melilla, a part of the European Union. The border is secured by the Melilla border fence, a six-meter-tall double fence with watch towers, yet refugees frequently manage to cross it illegally, avoiding the attempts by Spanish police to take them back to their home countries. Detection wires, tear gas dispensers, radar, and day/night vision cameras are planned to increase security and prevent illegal immigration. In October 2005, over 700 sub-Saharan migrants tried to enter Spanish territory from the Moroccan border. Many of them were shot in the back by the Moroccan Gendarmerie. Amnesty International and Médecins Sans Frontières have accused the Moroccan government of dumping over 500 refugees in the Sahara Desert without food or water supplies.
See also
Reference
External links
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melilla under GFDL
