More than 20,000 migrants, mainly young men, have stormed the border from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in the biggest migrant crisis in Spain since 2021. The authorities in Ceuta have stated that they do not know how many have arrived. We are seeing various figures such as 80,000, 50,000 and 20,000. NTB reports 50,000.
There are rumours that the 1,788 detainees in Morocco, who were pardoned yesterday, were given assistance to travel towards the border so that they could cross into Ceuta themselves.
Here is a video of a lorry dropping off many young men in northern Morocco. The officer appears to be wearing the uniform of Morocco’s Gendarmerie Royale.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is travelling to the besieged area on Friday, accompanied by Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska. Sánchez has so far resisted declaring a national state of emergency, as requested by the president of the autonomous government in the city of Ceuta.
The government in Madrid finally responded to what is, in effect, an invasion of European territory by mobilising army units already in Ceuta to take to the streets and ensure safety and order for the local population. In a rapidly developing situation, some Spanish media outlets reported that Madrid and the Moroccan government have agreed on an operation in the coming hours to deport the thousands – according to various unconfirmed estimates, over 20,000 – of Moroccans who continue to cross the border.
Pedro Sánchez is a member of the Spanish Social Democratic Party PSOE.
According to Reuters, the Spanish Supreme Court has recently ruled that those who have crossed the border cannot automatically be sent back to Morocco:
Videos on social media show that the migrants are aggressive and are attacking the police by throwing stones:
Spanish TV, rtve.es, broadcast a report this morning showing burnt-out cars in Ceuta from what they describe as the ‘migrant crisis’:
From live footage this morning, we can see that migrants are still pouring in:
European newspapers report that several of the migrants were smiling and shouting “Viva España!”, but other videos show them shouting “Allahu Akbar!”.
Morocco has previously used migrants as a weapon against Spain. This followed a serious diplomatic conflict between Morocco and Spain over Western Sahara in 2021. The Spanish government allowed the leader of the Western Saharan independence movement, the PolisarioFront, Brahim Ghali, to be flown to Spain for treatment for Covid-19 at a hospital in Logroño. Ghali was seriously ill. In protest, Morocco withdrew its border guards from the border with Ceuta, allowing many thousands of young men to enter Ceuta.
Here from 2021:
The Times Document Media on Ceuta in 2021 Daily Mail
