A soldier in front of a group of irregular immigrants in Ceuta, this Tuesday.JON NAZCA / Reuters
The entry of nearly 8,000 immigrants into Ceuta on Monday and Tuesday has triggered an unprecedented migration (and political) crisis at the border. Never before have such a high number of immigrants entered irregularly in such a short time. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, suspended his international agenda on Tuesday and traveled to the autonomous city of Ceuta and Melilla, where at dawn on Tuesday 86 people have managed to jump the fence. Of the 8,000 people who entered Ceuta since Monday, about half have already been returned to Morocco, according to the Interior Ministry, which does not give details of the procedure that would protect those returns.
The Ceuta crisis leaves a host of questions, both in the origin of the conflict - apparently linked to a diplomatic punishment of Morocco to Spain - and in how to address its most immediate consequence: the sudden reception of thousands of people, including hundreds juvenile.
What happens in Ceuta?
On Sunday night, rumors broke out in Morocco about the laxity of the Moroccan security forces on the coast; During the early hours of Monday, hundreds of people approached the breakwaters that separate them from the autonomous city to skirt them by swimming or on foot. The gendarmerie, indeed, showed an "unusual passivity", according to sources from the Spanish security forces. By Tuesday afternoon there were already 8,000 immigrants in the autonomous city, the majority Moroccans, but also some sub-Saharan Africans. Dozens continued to enter during the day. Most are young men, but there are entire families and at least 1,500 minors, some very young, according to sources from the Government of Ceuta.
What was the trigger?
The apparent reason has been the reception of the leader of the Polisario Front and president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Rasd), Brahim Gali, 73 years old.
Spain accepted the entry of Gali, suffering from covid-19, to enter a hospital in Logroño, a gesture that displeased Morocco.
But the real trigger was Donald Trump's recognition, in December, of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
This has led Rabat to exert unprecedented pressure on Spain and the European Union to "leave the comfort zone" of the UN, in the words of the Moroccan authorities and to follow in Trump's footsteps.
What is the government's position?
The Government has turned to the resolution of the crisis in Ceuta, which has unleashed the maximum alarm in the Executive. The president - who spoke in an institutional appearance of the need to defend "the territorial integrity" of Spain - yesterday flew to Ceuta and Melilla and multiplied his diplomatic efforts, especially with the EU. The matter monopolized the Council of Ministers, where a strong malaise with Morocco was evident. A good part of the Executive is working on different fronts to resolve the most serious diplomatic crisis since the president arrived in La Moncloa. Sánchez decided on Monday night to deploy the Army in Ceuta and, since early yesterday, he multiplied his calls, which have included European leaders but also Felipe VI and the leader of the opposition, Pablo Casado.
What is Morocco's position?
The Government of Morocco is silent about what happened. The only statement by a Moroccan representative was that of the ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, who affirmed this Tuesday that "there are acts that have consequences and must be assumed", before being called to Rabat for consultations.
What has been the reaction of the European Union?
The European Commission has called Morocco's attention on Tuesday for its role in the Ceuta crisis. "The Spanish borders are the European borders," the European Commissioner for the Interior, Ylva Johansson, warned Rabat in a speech to the European Parliament. The person in charge of border affairs and the new EU migration pact, in the negotiation phase, said she was following with concern the “unprecedented” influx of migrants detected in the Spanish enclave in Africa, and has demanded that Rabat comply with its obligations to control irregular departures and to ensure that those "who do not have the right to stay are returned in an orderly and effective manner."
Are there other conflicts in the bilateral relationship between Spain and Morocco?
There are two issues that mark the relations between Spain and Morocco. The first and determining is Western Sahara. The entire foreign policy of Morocco is subject to the Sahara conflict. Far behind comes the question of Ceuta and Melilla. For Morocco, for its local press, for its Government, these two autonomous cities are the “occupied prisons”. Any other possible conflict of interest, such as smuggling from Ceuta and Melilla, remains in the background.
What will happen to the newcomers?
The Interior Ministry is focused on returning as many immigrants as possible and as quickly as possible. And, although, on the one hand, Morocco has allowed the massive departure of its nationals and anyone who wanted to cross, on the other, is agreeing to readmit them back. During the day on Monday and Tuesday afternoon, some 4,000 people had been returned, according to Interior sources.
The returns, as reported by Efe and confirmed to EL PAÍS by various police sources and those related to the reception of migrants on the ground, have been carried out on many occasions without any formality and collectively. The Ceuta Bar Association assures that its lawyers have only been mobilized at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, despite the fact that returns began to be carried out on Monday. The lawyers, according to sources from the Association, have been called to open return files, the formula contained in the Immigration Law for irregular entries that guarantees a minimum legal channel.
Interior, however, refuses to give details of the procedure it has followed to return thousands of people in record time before activating the lawyers and limits itself to stating that it is "border rejections" (a common euphemism for returns hot), despite the fact that these must be carried out at border posts, not when the migrant has already entered Spanish territory.
The European Convention on Human Rights also prohibits collective expulsions.
Interior sources point out, on the other hand, that many of the people returned have returned voluntarily.
The issue leaves some loopholes. The Constitutional Court endorsed the hot returns last November, but the Citizen Security Law that regulates that specific procedure that will be applied to “foreigners who are detected on the border line of the territorial demarcation of Ceuta or Melilla while trying to overcome the elements of border containment ”.
"This avalanche puts on the table the contradiction that the Government faces every time there are irregular arrivals to Ceuta or Melilla", analyzes a legal expert in Immigration who prefers to remain anonymous. “On the one hand, the actions of the Civil Guard have been systematically saved by the courts each time it has been denounced. On the other, these actions are difficult to explain when, as has happened now, thousands of people are returned without there being the slightest possibility of verifying their personal circumstances ”, he adds. "Moroccan citizens who jump into the sea desperately have to find a difference between one side of the border and the other"
What will happen to the minors who have crossed the jetty?
In principle, the repayment agreement should not apply to them and the best interests of the minor should prevail. The Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, assured this Tuesday that there are no minors among those returned. Police sources insist that if a minor has been returned, it has been because they have requested it.
What reception capacity does Ceuta have, of less than 19 square kilometers?
The Government of Ceuta and the Government Delegation have set up different spaces for the reception, especially of minors, but also for adults who still remain in the city. The approximately 1,500 minors who crossed the jetty remained, until Tuesday afternoon, in a warehouse in the Tarajal. Other spaces, such as the José Benoliel stadium enclosure, were not yet operational on Tuesday afternoon. All the rooms have been overflowed. Sources from the Red Cross, which has been deployed on the Tarajal border and the warehouses of the polygon, indicated that there were no calculations of how many people they provided assistance or who had been transferred to the hospital. Various sources on the ground speak of "lack of control."
Are there precedents for an entry like this?
It is the first time that such a number of immigrants have crossed borders irregularly.
Not even in the 2006 canoe crisis in the Canary Islands, nor during the summer of 2018, which broke landings records, was such a high volume of entries registered.
The last record was broken on the weekend of November 7 and 8, when almost 2,200 people disembarked at the Arguineguín dock in Gran Canaria in two days.
With information from
Francisco Peregil, Carlos E. Cué, Laura J. Varo
and
Guillermo Abril.