thousands of immigrants cross the border of Morocco and Spain deploys the army

Right from the start, on the sands of Tarajal Beach in the Autonomous City of Ceuta, four tanks of the Spanish army point towards the border with Morocco, from where the entry into cascade of immigrants it doesn’t seem to stop.

Some 6,000 people crossed the 500 meters of sea between the two countries on Monday before inertia Moroccan authorities who do nothing to prevent it.

Chaos reigns: stoned, screams and desperate attempts to cross the pier and fence that separate the border between Spain and Morocco while members of the Spanish army return to Moroccan territory those who manage to cross and help those who manage to reach the coast.

It is the largest migratory wave produced in a day by sea and Ceuta, the 18.5 square kilometer city where some 85,000 people live, is overflowing. Since Sunday, it has suffered an avalanche of families, men, women and unaccompanied minors who, due to the inaction of the Moroccan authorities, have started to cross the border and stroll through its streets.

“It’s an invasion,” said the president of the autonomous Spanish city, Juan Jesús Vivas.

“It’s not an immigration problem. It is much more important – he added. We are not even able to calculate today how many people are in Ceuta. “

“We are working to reverse this extraordinary situation. 1,500 people who entered illegally have already been returned, out of the 6,000 who did so yesterday (Monday), ”said Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who was planning to go to Ceuta after the Council of Ministers .

Sánchez suspends its activities

At the head of this Council of Ministers, President Pedro Sánchez he suspended the trip that he had planned to go to Paris to deal with the migratory overflow suffered by the Spanish border.

“My priority at the moment is to restore normalcy in Ceuta. Its citizens should know that they have the absolute support of the Spanish government and the maximum firmness to ensure their safety and defend their integrity as part of the country in the face of any challenge, ”Sánchez said on his social media.

To the 6,000 immigrants who entered Ceuta illegally, there is also the attempt of 300 others who tried to reach Melilla on foot, the other autonomous city Spanish, although only 86 did.

And although Spain has already managed to return 1,500 people who crossed the border to Morocco, it will not be able to do so with minors which, for now, are around 1500.

The reckless tone of President Sánchez’s remarks reveals the diplomatic friction that has eroded relations with Morocco for weeks and which Spain has tried to downplay so far.

The reasons

The authorities in Rabat made no secret of their disapproval when Spain agreed to admit the leader of the Polisario Front and president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Brahim Gali, to a hospital in Logroño, in La Rioja, historically confronted with Morocco.

Gali, 73, was admitted from Algeria to intensive care at San Pedro de Logroño hospital under the false name of Mohamed Banbatouch. He tested positive for Covid and has suffered from digestive cancer for years.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry was quick to justify Gali’s transfer, arguing for “strictly reasons humanitarian so that he can receive health care ”.

Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said the decision “does not prevent or disrupt relations with Morocco at all, a privileged partner economically, politically, migration, economically and the fight against climate change ”.

However, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry “deplored” the Spanish decision in a statement in which it said “disappointment for this act contrary to the spirit of association and good neighborliness ”.

Spain does not diplomatically recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic but maintains relations with the Polisario Front.

Gali, former Saharawi Minister of Defense and former Ambassador of the Polisario to Spain and Algeria, is accused in a case examined by the Spanish National Court for torture and disappearance of dissidents in the Sahrawi refugee camps between 1976 and 1987.

The Moroccan government has yet to comment on the massive and uncontrolled entry of immigrants into Ceuta, a crisis that is worsening diplomatic tensions with Spain.

Madrid. Corresponding

ap