In September 2005, the Spanish border police, armed with riot gear and rubber bullets, faced hundreds of sub-Saharan African emigrants prepared to risk their lives to get across the razor wire topped perimeter fence around Ceuta and Mellila, the two enclaves controlled by Spain, off the Moroccan coast and disputed by Rabat. The migrants were attempting to enter Europe (Tremlet 2005; Soudan 2005). The Spanish branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) reported to have found more than 500 of those would-be migrants abandoned in the Moroccan desert after being expelled from the two enclaves. According to MSF, African migrants had been `abandoned to their fate` near El Aouina-Souatar, hundreds of kilometres south of the enclaves. The group included pregnant women and children.