Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has ruled out the possibility that Morocco's government supported a mass of migrants who sought to enter the Spanish exclave of Ceuta last month.
He said European Union intelligence showed “without doubt” that Morocco played no part in the more than 70,000 people crossing the border from Morocco into Ceuta, an autonomous city on the North African coast that belongs to Spain. “There was no information over the magnitude of what happened and obviously no one predicted that avalanche of people on such a scale,” Mr Sanchez told Cadena SER Radio on Monday.
About 5,000 people who entered Ceuta have remained, of which 1,200 are children, the Spanish government says. During the mass border crossing in July, around 72,000 people entered the territory. The vast majority were quickly sent back to Morocco or returned voluntarily.
Mr Sanchez was responding to speculation that Morocco – which does not recognise the Spanish sovereignty of the Ceuta and Melilla exclaves – had engineered the crisis to apply political pressure on Spain.
Instead, Mr Sanchez blamed Russia and Israel for spreading and amplifying disinformation related to the mass entry of migrants, citing the European research. Mr Sanchez said it was “evident” the two countries had used the crisis to criticise the Spanish government, as they are at odds with Madrid over its position on wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Spain was among the first countries to recognise Palestinian statehood after the outbreak of the Gaza war and to repeatedly condemn the suffering of civilians in the territory.
Most of the migrants who crossed into Ceuta did so for “economic reasons”, Mr Sanchez said, and would be returned to Morocco. In the meantime, he said there would be no transfers to mainland Spain and that 6,000 accommodation places would be made available in Ceuta “in the coming days”.
The Spanish government’s priority was to resolve the status of children who crossed the border, he added.
Italy extends travel restrictions
The crisis has led to growing tension between Spain and some of Europe's right-wing governments, not least Italy, which suspended border-free travel for Spanish citizens in response to the crisis.
Rome said on Monday it would extend this suspension for a further 15 days. It had initially been implemented for a month on July 31 in the immediate aftermath of the Ceuta incident.
Spain has asked Europe’s Border and Coastguard Agency, Frontex, for help to process the 5,000 migrants in Ceuta who crossed into the North African territory a month ago.
Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spanish Interior Minister, sent the request to Beate Gminder, the European Commission’s director general for migration and home affairs, on Friday.
Losing support
Mr Sanchez is also under domestic pressure to address the issue. The first major opinion poll published since the Ceuta incident shows his Socialist party is losing support ahead of elections scheduled for the first half of next year.
The party, known as PSOE, would win 101 seats, with 25.4 per cent of the vote were elections to be held today, which is 20 fewer seats than it currently holds, according to a Sigma Dos poll published by newspaper El Mundo. The conservative People’s Party would rise to 143 seats from the 137 it won in 2023, while far-right Vox would almost double its 33 seats to 61.
Mr Sanchez is due to stand for re-election next year. He has been in power since 2018 and leads a minority coalition government.
There has been regular instability at the borders of Ceuta and protests among those who remain in the city in the past month. The city's president-mayor, Juan Jesus Viva, has threatened legal action against the Spanish government if it does not resolve the issue.
In the days after the incident, border workers said they had warned the Spanish government in early July that more people were arriving by sea but that they had been ignored.
This followed a Spanish court ruling published on June 29, which stated that migrants could be immediately prevented from entering Ceuta only if they had crossed a physical barrier, specifying that this would not apply to anyone swimming across to the exclave. News of this ruling and videos of migrants successfully entering Ceuta encouraged more and more to try their luck.
Spanish authorities say 80 people died in the rush and Moroccan authorities said 14 bodies were recovered in their territory, putting the number of confirmed deaths at 94. Human rights groups say more remain missing and that the death toll could be higher.
