Border crisis in Ceuta

25,000 have already returned voluntarily to Morocco

Almost half of the Moroccans who entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in the past 24 hours have returned. This is stated by the Spanish Interior Ministry, reports Reuters.

All 25,000 have returned voluntarily, the ministry emphasizes, which at the same time writes down its estimate of the number who crossed the border from 49,000 to 60,000, according to The Guardian. At least 34 have died. 

Analysis: Morocco is pressuring Spain through the migrants

That tens of thousands of people crossed the border to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in one day is no coincidence. This is what analysts in Swedish and international media agree on.

“This would have been impossible without the passivity of the Moroccan authorities,” writes Miguel González in El País.

Several analysts write that Morocco has eased its border security in recent days, and has not reacted when thousands began to cross. They believe this is a direct response to the fact that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Morocco’s archenemy Algeria on July 20 and promised to conclude a high-level agreement later this fall.

Analyst Taleb Alisalem tells TeleMadrid that waves of Moroccans to the Spanish Ceuta and Melilla always come when Morocco wants to put pressure on Spain or the EU. According to him, the country is on the verge of claiming the two Spanish exclaves.

“This is not a conspiracy theory, but concrete statements from the Moroccan Prime Minister,” he says.

The situation is creating enormous problems for Sánchez, both domestically and internationally. This is what Mats Larsson writes in his analysis in Expressen.

“Spain is going to the polls by next summer at the latest and Sánchez is already under pressure from a series of corruption scandals.”

And Donald Trump, he writes, who has been angered by Sánchez’s criticism of the war in Iran and is himself closing the US borders, “will not learn to remain silent about what is happening in Ceuta.”