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SPAIN’S Interior Ministry has blamed trafficking gangs – not the courts – for driving thousands to storm into Ceuta.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the ministry accused organised trafficking networks of ‘instrumentalising’ a Spanish Supreme Court ruling to convince young Moroccans they now have a better chance of being allowed to stay in Spain if they arrive by sea, Spanish news agency EFE reports.
The Ministry also confirmed that hundreds of migrants entered Ceuta last week, through border fences which were not guarded by the police.
In a ruling earlier this month, Spain’s highest court said that migrants who were intercepted in the water swimming towards Ceuta and Melilla could not be automatically returned at the border as they are when trying to climb over a land fence.
Anyone who is caught in the water now has to go through the standard process of immigration, which takes months and allows migrants to officially apply to stay in Spain.
The ministry says that the ruling is not responsible for the surge, but traffickers use it to convince more people to attempt the sea crossing.
A study released this week confirms the thesis by pointing out that social media is one of the main drivers behind irregular migration from north Morocco.
The survey by Observatorio del Norte de Derechos Humanos de Marruecos — a Moroccan human rights NGO, not a government body — polled 500 young people in Tangier, Tetouan and Al Hoceima.
Four out of five people (81%) say that social media content about migration makes it look like irregular migration is a way to improve their living conditions.
The same 78.4% also said that young people find it easy to follow pages that encourage irregular migration. And 74.2% of them said they are interested in planning their own trips.
According to the same statement, thousands of people scaled Ceuta’s fences at a time when Spanish police was not guarding them.
The Moroccan security forces who were responsible for the Moroccan side of the border reportedly retreated as the group crossed, allowing it to occur unchecked.
The fight took place in Fnideq (also known as Castillejos in Spanish), a Moroccan border city facing Ceuta from across the fence.
Spain and Morocco have agreed that they will speed up the returns of all those who entered Ceuta unlawfully in the last few days.
The Interior Ministry described the relationship between the two countries as an ‘exemplary collaboration’, crediting Moroccan security forces with stopping thousands of other attempted crossings.
According to the Ministry of Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska and Abdelouafi Laffit, his Moroccan counterpart, have been in constant communication.
Juan Jesus Vivas said that between 1,500 to 2,000 people entered Ceuta without permission in the past ten days.
Vivas said the situation amounts to ‘an absolute humanitarian and social emergency’ and has asked the Spanish government to take direct control of the response.
Grande-Marlaska plans to visit Ceuta this Friday to observe the situation.
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