Spanish police point to Morocco’s role in Ceuta crisis

 

Spanish police point to Morocco’s role in Ceuta crisis

 

The police report debunks the Spanish government's narrative that Rabat bears no responsibility for the deadly migrant surge

 

Politics

Inés Fernández-Pontes

Euractiv

https://www.euractiv.com/news/spanish-police-point-to-moroccos-role-in-ceuta-crisis/

 

MADRID  – A leaked report by Spain’s national police claims Moroccan authorities engineered the mass migrant influx into Ceuta in late July to destabilise the Spanish frontier.

 

Moroccan gendarmes ushered thousands of migrants to the border of the tiny Spanish city in North Africa, according to a report by the police’s National Immigration and Borders Centre (CENIF), as revealed by newspaper El Español.

 

The “planning and execution” of the entry of 72,000 migrants into Ceuta on 30-31 July (80,000 according to local authorities) – in which more than 100 people died – was “monitored by Moroccan agents on the ground”.

 

The police report had been requested by the National Court, Spain’s top criminal court, as a magistrate is now making a preliminary investigation into the mass border crisis. The incident constitutes perhaps the worst national security crisis in Spain’s recent history.

 

The surge aimed to overwhelm Spanish security forces in Ceuta, according to the report. The intelligence police unit links this to Morocco’s territorial claims on the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, its other exclave in North Africa.

 

Jorge Dezcallar, Spain’s former envoy to Morocco and ex-chief of the National Intelligence Services (CNI), previously told Euractiv that Morocco’s territorial claims on the two cities were a key factor in the event. By enabling the surge, Moroccan authorities could “test the waters” at a time when it “perceives a weak government in Madrid”, he said.

 

The CENIF report concludes that Morocco’s objective was to “violate” the Spanish and EU border “under the guise of a migratory crisis”. It notes that around 70,000 people who entered Ceuta had voluntarily returned within hours.

 

Political pressure

The bombshell report has sent shockwaves through Madrid, where the entire political spectrum is questioning the Socialist Party (PSOE) complacency with Rabat.

 

Despite Sánchez initially calling the surge a “violation of Spain’s territorial integrity”, and Moroccan ministers making public claims of sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, Madrid has not taken any concrete action against what it calls a “loyal ally”. Morocco’s ambassador to Spain has not even been summoned for questioning.

 

The official line maintained by Spain and Morocco blames human smuggling criminal networks and social media disinformation for the crisis – a hypothesis questioned by Spanish security forces and experts.

 

No evidence Morocco was behind Ceuta surge, says Sánchez

Amid the political fallout, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has called on the Director-General of the Police, Francisco Pardo, “to brief him as soon as possible on the content” and “veracity” of the report, a ministry spokesperson told Euractiv.

 

The ministry adds this “essential” information “should have been brought to the attention of the executive immediately,” as well as to the members of the National Security Council – the crisis management body that advises the prime minister.

 

The police report is in the hands of Judge Maria Tardón, and the public prosecution, who will decide soon whether to open a judicial investigation.

 

Pardo, appointed by Marlaska in 2018, subsequently informed the minister that “there is no police report whatsoever that attributes to the Moroccan security forces the planning or execution of what happened on July 30 and 31 in Ceuta,” according to a statement.

 

The judge “instructed the investigators not to provide their superiors with any information regarding its preparation and content,” which is why Pardo had no knowledge of it.

 

This story has been updated with Pardo denial