STRANGE SPANISH PRACTICES AND A WALL OF BARBED WIRE

IN ONE of the many quirks that beset under-siege Europe it is possible to enter the continent by climbing a fence. Not on one of the many islands that still belong to European nations – Canaries, Azores, Balearics, Madeira, or faraway Reunion – but a fence (or two actually) on mainland Morocco.

I refer to the two Spanish enclaves on the north Moroccan coast, Ceuta and Melilla. Which is exactly what several hundred Africans have just done.

Madrid seldom ceases to prattle on about Gibraltar, which apart from anything else has self-government under the British Crown. But we acquired it by treaty in 1713, a treaty which Spain co-signed. Ceuta and Melilla were acquired by armed contest and retained by threat when Morocco was liberated from Spanish rule. I say “liberated” advisedly because in 1956 Spain was under the fascist Franco.

While Gibraltar is a major naval base within Nato, helping to protect Europe and thus Spain, there is not a shred of good reason why Spain needs to retain these obscure enclaves on Moroccan soil.

They serve no purpose other than to massage Spanish ego and do not have self-government. Thus they are colonies in a post-colonial world.

Anyway, Madrid has built fences and barbed wire entanglement to keep illegal migrants out. These have now been breached en masse.

There is actually a Melilla/ Ceuta independence movement but do not mention this to the Spanish media. Under EU rules all media are free but some are a bit more so than others.

And by the by, in the last Gibraltarian referendum about 98 per cent voted to stay British. The Moroccans under Spanish rules don’t have such delicacies. And olé to you too.