Migration crisis in Spain: doubts and an opaque political background behind the flood of Moroccans in Ceuta

Several Facebook groups, which brought together some 250 thousand users and which have already been eliminated from the networks, offered screenshots of the border, maps and possible access routes to the walled city in African territory that Spain has governed since the 17th century.

Who could have orchestrated this knock-on effect caused by such a disinformation campaign that circulated, among Moroccan cell phones, false messages such as the one that claimed: “The Civil Guard distributes floats”?

The untimely overflow of people, as desperate as they were prepared – some disembarked with neoprene suits and airtight protectors so that the water would not damage their mobile phones – that the tide deposited on the El Tarajal beach in Ceuta isa blow to the international reputation of President Pedro Sánchez and his policies migratory.

The massive arrival of people without papers, which in numbers is equivalent to 70 percent of the stable population of Ceuta, occurred just a month after the end of the much-questioned extraordinary regularization of foreigners that Pedro Sánchez rushed before the new European law on migration came into force, more strict and unfriendly.

The progressive government of Sánchez estimated that the regularization process would grant residence permits to 500 thousand people who already live in Spain. However, the applications submitted were more than one million.

The opposition – especially the PP and Vox – questioned Sánchez’s immigration policy from the first day.

“Spain has been sending the wrong message for years: come to Spain, everything free, open bar, without fear,” said Vox senator Javier Valentín Alonso Coronel during a session in June.

The untimely entry of young people from Morocco and in which 57 people died was defined by Pedro Sánchez as “aattack, a violation of the territorial integrity of Spain. id=”element-body-12″>

The Ministry of the Interior denounced that it is the human trafficking networks that intentionally misinterpreted a judicial ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court to encourage the entry of undocumented migrants into Spain.

“It has spread like wildfire during these last hours by the mafia networks that traffic in human beings and has produced an avalanche,” said Sánchez.

However, the images that spread around the world were of people crossing to Ceuta on their own in the face of the suspicious passivity of the Moroccan authorities.

The Supreme Court ruling indicated, in reference to non-legal border crossings, that the returns of irregular immigrants would not be applied in cases in which they did not involve the crossing of fences or “containment elements”. class=”sc-45461e9c-0 eqiBeF container-text text-embed ” id=”element-body-16″>

The misleading message, however, stated that the Spanish border was open by sea.

Morocco’s striking inaction raises more than one question: the sudden increase in irregular income is only possible if the Rabat government stops controlling its border.

And while speculation suggests that Moroccan King Mohamed VI will not would have welcomed Pedro Sánchez’s official visit to Algeria last week, there are views that point to the sympathy that unites Morocco with the United States and Israel, two allies harshly criticized by the Spanish president.

“It would not be the first time that Morocco uses migrants to extort politically to Spain,” says Moroccan activist Chaimaa Boukharsa.

About the migration crisis in Ceuta, she adds: “It must be understood within the alliance between Trump, Netanyahu and Morocco, which is a strategic ally of the Zionist project in the region and uses the border as a tool of pressure politics.”