Razor wire separating Europe from Africa might come down
A fence separates Africa from Europe. It’s 20 feet tall and encircles the two small Spanish enclaves wedged between Morocco and the Mediterranean Sea. The fence is triple layered and topped with razor wire.
Soon, the razor wire might come down. The Spanish government is considering replacing it with other measures that “are less bloody and more respectful of the integrity of the people,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. “The control of migratory flows does not have to be in conflict with a greater respect for human rights.”
The move is part of a broader set of reforms by Spain’s new socialist government, which entered office in June, to ease the path of Middle Eastern and African migrants. Spain has also accepted boats carrying migrants that were rejected at other ports, and also guaranteed that new arrivals receive free governmentbacked health care.
The changes come as migrants’ pathways across the Mediterranean evolve to make Spain the busiest gateway into Europe.
Nowhere is this evolving relationship felt more acutely than in the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta. Elsewhere, the two continents are separated by hundreds of miles of sea, but in these Spanish autonomous cities the barrier is just a few feet of wire and mesh.
For years, the front lines of the Mediterranean migrant crisis were in Italy and Greece, where sun-drenched beaches became thick with crowds of survivors from the treacherous journey across the sea.
This year, the migrants went west. As of late August, more than 32,000 migrants entered Spain via land or sea, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration. Currently, Spain is receiving twice as many migrants as Greece and six times as many as Italy.
“There is no one simple or linear factor that is leading to an increase in arrivals to Spain over Italy,” said Oussama El Baroudi, an IOM spokesman. “It is likely a combination of factors,” including crackdowns on human traffickers and actions by the Libyan Coast Guard.
Most migrants come to Spain via the sea, often in dangerous rickety boats. But in Ceuta and Melilla, some have the option of simply walking across.
“It’s easy here. You show [your] passport,” said Lotfi, 28, a Tunisian man who’s spent nearly five months in Melilla and hopes to travel to France.
There are official border checkpoints where thousands of Moroccans and Spaniards cross each day to shop and work. An asylum office is located on the Spanish side of the Melilla border post.
Ibrahim Abouyoussef, a 40-year-old Palestinian man from Gaza, spent a week traveling through Egypt and the western Sahara before reaching Melilla. He’d heard Spain would process his asylum request, he said, and hopes to have his wife and five children follow.
It can be more difficult for people of other nationalities. Advocates say Moroccan authorities prevent anyone without proper paperwork from getting to the Spanish side of the border, making it impossible to request asylum.
Security officials are particularly strict with darkskinned people from sub Saharan Africa, said María Vieyra, a lawyer with Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes, or Jesuit Service for Migrants.
“This [asylum] office in Spain is almost closed to that population,” she said. “The only option they have is to jump across the border or go by boat.”
The border fence at Melilla is erected in three layers to slow down people trying to cross. In July, 602 migrants successfully assailed the Ceuta fence in a rush just after dawn. A month later, 118 migrants repeated the feat.
Others willing to pay smugglers sneak into the cities in the false bottoms of cars or crammed into hollowed-out dashboards.