Army deployed after thousands cross into Spain
Spain deployed its military to the Moroccan border on Tuesday as thousands of Moroccans walked or swam onto European soil for the second day in a row after Rabat loosened border controls in a diplomatic spat.
Live footage on Spain’s public broadcaster TVE showed dramatic scenes of soldiers carrying children in their arms and Red Cross personnel helping migrants who were emerging from the water shivering and exhausted.
The sudden influx of migrants has deepened the diplomatic spat between Rabat and Madrid and created a humanitarian crisis for Ceuta, the Spanish city of 85,000 that lies in North Africa on the Mediterranean Sea, separated from Morocco by a doublewide, 10-metre fence.
By Tuesday morning, at least 6,000 sea-soaked people had crossed the border into Ceuta since the first arrivals began early on Monday, the Spanish government said, including 1,500 thought to be teenagers. The number getting in slowed but didn’t stop on Tuesday as Spain deployed additional police and soldiers to the border.
Some 2,700 adults were already returned to Morocco from the latest surge, according to Spain’s interior ministry. Morocco and Spain signed an agreement three decades ago to return all those who swim across the border.
By Tuesday afternoon, Moroccan authorities closed the road leading to the border post with Ceuta and anti-riot police dispersed crowds of would-be migrants.
“It’s such a strong invasion that we are not able to calculate the number of people that have entered,” said Juan Jesús Vivas, the president of Ceuta, an autonomous city.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez cancelled a trip to Paris, where he was to attend a summit on international aid to Africa, to focus on the crisis with Morocco.
“We will restore order in the city and in our borders as soon as possible,” he said, adding he would visit Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other north African enclave, later on Tuesday.
The European Union’s top migration official - home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson described the incidents as “worrying,” and she called on Morocco to prevent people from setting out in the first place.
Morocco’s loosened border watch came after Spain decided to give a visa for medical treatment to Brahim Ghali, head of the militant group Polisario Front that has fought Morocco for the independence of Western Sahara. Morocco annexed the sprawling region on the west coast of Africa in 1975.
The Spanish government itself, however, officially rejects the notion that Morocco is punishing Spain for a humanitarian move.
“I cannot envisage that putting the lives of young people and minors at risk is in response to a humanitarian issue, I simply cannot conceive it,” foreign minister Arancha González Laya said.