Europe
Spain vows to restore order after thousands swim into
Ceuta from Morocco
Reuters
A sudden
influx of migrants swimming into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern
Africa is a serious crisis for Europe, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on
Tuesday, vowing to re-establish order promptly amid heightened diplomatic
tensions with Morocco.
Spain
deployed troops to Ceuta to patrol the border with Morocco after around 8,000
migrants, many from Sub-Saharan Africa and including 1,500 minors, entered the
enclave on Monday and Tuesday by swimming in or climbing over the fence.
Armoured
vehicles were guarding Ceuta's beach on Tuesday, and soldiers and police used
batons to clear migrants from the beach and threw smoke bombs to discourage
others from crossing.
A Reuters
reporter on the ground said the number of arrivals by sea had slowed, and some
migrants were voluntarily returning to Morocco. A few others could be seen
being carried away by soldiers. Footage of the beach at around 8 p.m. local
time showed nearly all migrants had been cleared.
Spain said
approximately 4,000 migrants had already been sent back to Morocco, under a
readmission deal.
The
regional leader of Ceuta criticised what he described as Morocco's passivity in
the face of Monday's surge, and some independent experts said Rabat had
initially allowed it as a means of pressuring Madrid over its decision to admit
a rebel leader from the Western Sahara to a Spanish hospital.
The Spanish
government did not make that connection, with Sanchez calling the north African
nation a friend of Spain and the interior ministry citing cooperation over the
readmissions, although Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told Morocco's
ambassador Spain rejected and disapproved of the mass arrivals.
Rabat
recalled its ambassador to Madrid for consultations, said a diplomatic source
who declined to be named, adding that relations with Spain needed a moment of
"contemplation". Moroccan authorities did not respond to requests for
comment.
Moroccan
citizens stand next to and swim around the fence between the Spanish-Moroccan
border, after thousands of migrants swam across this border on Monday, in
Ceuta, Spain, May 18, 2021. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
Moroccan TV
footage showed authorities setting up barriers on Tuesday afternoon to prevent
people from crossing into Ceuta, but footage filmed from the Spanish
sideearlier showed a Moroccan soldier or policeman wavingdozens of running
migrants through a gate to no-man's land without any checks.
"This
sudden arrival of irregular migrants is a serious crisis for Spain and
Europe," Sanchez said in a televised address before his arrival in Ceuta.
European
Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas tweeted that the enclave's
frontier was a European border, expressing his "full solidarity with
Spain".
Ceuta, with
a population of 80,000, is on the northern tip of Morocco across from
Gibraltar. Along with another Spanish enclave, Melilla, it has long been a
magnet for African migrants seeking a better life in Europe. Morocco has a
claim on both.
WESTERN
SAHARA DISPUTE
The spike
in arrivals took place after Rabat expressed its anger last month when Spain
discreetly admitted Brahim Ghali, the leader of Western Sahara’s rebel
Polisario Front to hospital. Madrid said it acted on purely humanitarian
grounds.
Morocco's
Foreign Ministry criticised what it said was Spain's decision to admit Ghali
under a false identity without informing Morocco, warning of repercussions.
The
Polisario Front wants the Western Sahara to be an independent state rather than
part of Morocco. Algeria, Morocco's regional rival, backs the Polisario Front.
The United
States in December recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara
territory.
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