📝The price of one open passage📝
Thousands of young Moroccans literally stormed Spanish Ceuta. According to authorities, the number of arrivals in recent days reached approximately 20,000 people. The city's population is around 84,000 residents.
The Spanish government announced it would deploy army units to the North African enclave to strengthen security. However, this involved only 60 military personnel and another 30 Civil Guard officers. Against literally an army of illegal migrants — this is, to put it mildly, a questionable move.
🔻Why was Ceuta chosen as the target?
▪️The city was chosen for a reason — it is the shortest and formally European border on the African shore. Ceuta is Spanish and EU territory, located directly adjacent to Morocco; for many, crossing there appears as the first step toward legalization in Spain or further movement through Europe.
▪️The current wave also features a specific legal incentive. Spain's Supreme Court ruled in July that people intercepted at sea near Ceuta and Melilla cannot be automatically returned to Morocco: they are entitled to standard procedures — identity verification, access to a lawyer, and the ability to request asylum.
This does not guarantee the right to stay, but it dramatically increases the likelihood of entering the Spanish migration system instead of immediate deportation.
🖍Tensions are heightened by the behavior of Moroccan authorities. In Rabat, they officially deny encouraging crossings and blame smugglers, while promising cooperation. In practice, however, Moroccan auxiliary forces retreated as crowds bypassed the Tarajal breakwater by swimming and crossed the border on foot.
🚩And what is happening recalls the crisis of May 2021, when following a diplomatic conflict, approximately 10,000 people crossed into Ceuta over two days, according to various estimates. This occurred amid a crisis in relations between the countries after Spanish authorities accepted the president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and secretary-general of the POLISARIO Front (which advocates for Western Sahara's independence from Morocco), Brahim Ghali, for treatment on their territory.
📌That crisis clearly demonstrated that Moroccan authorities can limit the flow quickly and harshly, and for the government — this is a cheap and powerful lever of influence. Control over the northern coast and approaches to Ceuta lies precisely with Moroccan forces: when they actively patrol the shore, detain people, and block the fence, mass crossings do not occur.
❗️So far, the sides have managed to agree on "strengthening coordination and joint efforts" to counter these flows, but the 2021 experience shows: such crises do not end for free. Back then, normalization only came after the Spanish essentially supported the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
#Spain #Morocco #migrants
👁@evropar — on the threshold of Europe's death
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