They arrived non-stop for two days. A few meters in the water, a maximum of one hour of swimming and you are beyond the border, the only one, with Melilla, that unites Africa to Europe. Ceuta, despite being under pressure for decades, had never seen something like this. The numbers are impressive, about eight thousand people have landed on the Tarajal beach, the one closest to the border with Morocco, but no one can clarify the number: “We couldn’t even count them”, explains the president of the autonomous city Juan Jesús Vivas who went so far as to speak of “invasion”. The short journey in the water is not without risk: the Red Cross and the Spanish military have assisted thousands of migrants suffering from hypothermia.
The videos of the agents
The sudden arrival of so many people (in part then sent back) and the way of disembarkation is such as to leave no doubts: behind it is the hand of Rabat. What may have been a well-founded suspicion became a certainty when images arrived showing the passivity, at best, of the Moroccan authorities and security forces. In some videos you can even see agents breaking through the fence that divides the two countries to allow groups of migrants to pass. Another anomaly with respect to the usual arrivals: the vast majority of people arriving are of Moroccan nationality and not sub-Saharan, people who live in the provinces around the Spanish enclave. In short, the signature of Morocco is clear. So much so that in the late afternoon the counterorder arrived from Rabat: the police closed the border and no one passed.
But these two days have left a very clear mark. In Madrid they are certain: it was a cynical retaliation for an alleged rudeness suffered. In fact, Spain is hosting Brahim Gali, the leader of the Polisario Front, the liberation movement of Western Sahara, a historic enemy of Morocco, gravely ill in a hospital in Logroño. A humanitarian gesture for Madrid, experienced beyond the Strait of Gibraltar as a very serious offense. The diplomatic crisis, therefore, is mixed with that of migration, also because Moroccan nationalists take advantage of it to claim sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla.
The diplomatic allusion
The day is very tense. The Spanish Foreign Minister Aranxa Gónzalez Laya summons the Moroccan ambassador to Madrid Karima Benyaich, who shortly before had alluded to retaliation: “There are acts that have consequences.” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska announces that there have been around 3,000 rejections (and they do not concern minors).
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is very active, on Monday night he decides to send the army to Ceuta, cancels his trip to Paris and leaves for the two autonomous cities. Before embarking, he issues an institutional declaration: “The territorial integrity of the Ceuta and Melilla borders, which are also the borders of the European Union, and the security of our fellow citizens will be defended by the government at all times and in all circumstances”. Very firm words, especially for the head of a progressive executive, as noted, for example, by Matteo Salvini who uses them in an Italian key: «Spain (with a left-wing government) deploys the Army at the borders to block illegal entries. We await news from the Interior Ministry … ». Europe, called into question by Sánchez, takes sides with clarity: “The EU is in solidarity with Ceuta and Spain – says the president of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen -. We need common European solutions to manage migration ”. The head of European diplomacy, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, assured that “the EU will do what is necessary to support Spain in this difficult phase”.
The Spanish far right rides the crisis, the leader Santiago Abascal arrives in the city and raises the tone against the government. And some Ceuta residents welcome Sánchez’s arrival with whistles and insults. But this seems to be a diplomatic affair rather than a migration crisis. Spain shows itself to be firm, but the anguish is great because this story proves once again that the border is completely in the hands of Morocco, which opens and closes it according to the moods and political evaluations of its sovereign, regardless of treaties. bilateral and above all the fate of those who try their luck by risking their lives. The numbers this time are exorbitant, but it is not the first time that Mohammed VI uses migrants to lobby and send messages to his European neighbor. Officials of the Spanish security forces tell dozens of episodes, some with the king as the protagonist. Morocco has always used its neighbor’s moments of weakness to up the ante. Ironically, the Spanish Council of Ministers allocated 30 million euros for cooperation with Rabat yesterday. The Ceuta scenes suggest that the sum is not enough for King Mohammed.