Morocco has blamed a pro-migration Spanish court ruling for the unprecedented surge of tens of thousands of migrants to Ceuta.
A Moroccan official said his country had warned Madrid that the decree, made last month, would become a “problem”, because it had blocked immediate deportations of people arriving by sea.
Spain refuted the claim almost immediately, in a dispute that could trigger a fresh breakdown in relations between Madrid and Rabat.
Ceuta, a small Spanish exclave in North Africa, was overwhelmed by almost 72,000 migrants after they swam towards it and stormed the border on Friday.
Spanish and European officials have so far avoided blaming Morocco, despite the North African country encouraging thousands of people to cross into Ceuta during a 2021 diplomatic spat.
Credit: Anadolu via Reuters
Instead, Madrid said “criminal mafias” had been responsible for encouraging migrants to cross into the territory. Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, remained calm and cordial.
However, a Moroccan official said on Tuesday that the cause had been Spain’s July 8 supreme court ruling, which had blocked the practice of “hot returns” by those reaching Ceuta by sea if no barrier was in place.
He said: “We started engaging with the Spanish side around July 22 to 23, when the networks began talking about this. We discussed this ruling and its impact.
“We explained that this ruling was going to create a problem. And it did create a problem. Today, it is up to Spain to find answers to the challenges posed by this ruling.”
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez has faced criticism for his allegedly soft-touch immigration policies – Getty
Madrid has maintained that its intelligence agencies had no indications that a mass crossing into Ceuta was imminent in the days before the influx on July 30.
Speaking after an emergency EU meeting on Tuesday, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Spain’s interior minister, told reporters: “There was no report, no warning. These things can happen, but let’s also bear in mind that we’re prepared to respond immediately to a crisis of this kind.”
He said about 70,000 of the 72,000 migrants who had entered Ceuta had left.
Mr Grande-Marlaska said Spain had worked as fast as possible to install a maritime barrier off the exclave’s coast following the supreme court ruling.
A boy, believed to be 13 years old, sleeps in a warehouse near the border between Ceuta and Morocco on Monday – Bernat Armangue / AP
Meanwhile, European capitals sought to end their own infighting with Spain, after 22 member states blamed Madrid for the migrant crisis.
During a three-hour meeting, ministers praised Spain for its prompt response and eventually agreed that the EU’s Schengen area had not been put at risk by the Ceuta crisis.
It drew a line under five days of bitter feuding, which had prompted calls for Spain to be removed from the free-movement zone and saw Mr Sánchez accuse his counterparts of being “selfish”.
Even Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, sought to put a lid on the row, after Rome led a charge against the Spanish prime minister’s pro-migration policies.
Thousands of migrants flooded into Ceuta on Thursday and Friday – AP
According to a copy of a behind-closed-doors speech, Mr Piantedosi expressed “Italy’s sincere solidarity to the Spanish Government”.
The Ceuta crisis has reinvigorated the discussion among European capitals about how best to protect their shared borders from illegal migrants.
With investigations still ongoing into what caused the influx, EU leaders expressed fears that migration was once again being weaponised against the bloc.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece, called for an emergency scheme that would allow member states to temporarily suspend all asylum applications for new arrivals.
Migrants wait in line to receive food and water from a Red Cross team in Ceuta – Reuters
Italy’s Mr Piantedosi said Brussels needed to consider punishing third countries paid to limit migration into the bloc by withdrawing any financial support.
He said the Italian government’s decision to reintroduce border checks on sea and air travel from Spain was “in no way a measure directed against Spain or any other partner”.
Ministers agreed to continue working on a plan pitched by Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, in a letter sent to Mr Sánchez earlier this week.
Ties between Spain and Morocco soured in 2021 after Brahim Ghali, the head of a Western Saharan militia fighting for independence from Rabat, arrived in Spain for hospital treatment.
Morocco accused Spain of “colluding” with Mr Ghali for allowing him into the country without notifying Rabat. A few weeks later, Rabat relaxed the border with Ceuta and 8,000 migrants crossed into the territory.
Just 10 days before the latest crisis, Mr Sánchez visited Algeria, one of Morocco’s rivals, and hailed a “new phase” in relations.
Meanwhile, a political row erupted over the possibility that children who crossed from Morocco to Ceuta will be moved to Spain. On Tuesday, authorities said there were 826 young arrivals, but only 29 beds available.
Miguel Tellado, the secretary-general of the conservative opposition People’s Party, which depends on the support of the far-Right Vox party in some regions, said these children would not be admitted by authorities it controlled.
He said: “We insist the Spanish government sends people who entered the country illegally to be returned to where they came from.”
Reports in Spain suggested that social media posts had called for another mass crossing into Ceuta on Aug 15, but the number of posts or their origin was unclear.
