Melilla - Political status, History, Architecture, Immigration

35°21N 2°57W, pop (2000e) 67 000. Free port and modern commercial city on N African coast of Morocco; with Ceuta, forms a region of Spain; founded as a port by the Phoenicians; free port since 1863; re-occupied by Spain in 1926; airport; car ferries to Málaga; trade in iron ore; naval shipyard; old town, Church of the Purisima Concepción (16th-c).

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Flag Coat of arms
Area  – Total	20 km² (8 mi²)
Population  – Total (2005)  – Density	65,488  3274.4/km²
Demonym  – English  – Spanish	---  melillense
Statute of Autonomy	March 14, 1995
ISO 3166-2:ES	ES-ML
Parliamentary representation  – Congress seats  – Senate seats	1  2
President	Juan José Imbroda Ortíz (PP)
Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla

Melilla is a Spanish city on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, neighbouring Morocco.

Political status

Morocco has claimed Melilla, along with Ceuta and various small Spanish islands off the coast of Africa (Plazas de soberanía), 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. It must also be mentioned that the history of Melilla is practically identical to that of any other town in southern Spain, passing through Phoenician, Punic, Byzantine, Vandal, Visigothic, Muslim and then Christian hands.

Melilla and Ceuta are the only two remaining European territories located in mainland Africa.

Melilla is heavily dependent on Morocco.

History

Melilla was a Phoenician and later Punic establishment under the name of Rusadir. Melilla was on the frontier of the Kingdom of Tlemcen and the Kingdom of Fez when Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán (also known as Guzmán El Bueno), the 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia reconquered it in 1497, a few years after Castile had taken control of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, the last remain of Al-Andalus.

The limits of the Spanish territory around the fortress were fixed by treaties with Morocco in 1859, 1860, 1861 and 1894. In the late 19th century, as Spanish influence expanded, Melilla became the only authorized centre of trade on the Rif coast between Tetuan and the Algerian frontier. But hostilities broke out again in 1911 and the Rif, inflicting grave defeats on the Spanish (see Disaster of Annual), were not pacified until 1927, when the Spanish Protectorate finally managed to control insurgency.

Architecture

Melilla sports the only Gothic arch in Africa.

During the change from the 19th to the 20th century, Melilla was thriving in the context of the Spanish Protectorate.

Melilla has been praised as an example of multiculturalism, how people of three different religions can live side-by-side in harmony within a small area.

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. There has only been one Muslim president, Mustafá Aberchán of the Coalition for Melilla political party, installed in 1999 and whose term lasted only one year before his being ousted. Aberchán claims that the current president, Juan José Imbroda, once said that, "Melilla was not 'ready' for a Muslim president."

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.