Influx of migrants in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, Spain wants to be firm

Ceuta Border AFP - ANTONIO SEMPERE

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While more than 6,000 people from Morocco entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in 24 hours, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised this Tuesday, May 18 to restore order at the borders.  

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described as "a 

serious crisis for Spain and also for Europe

 "

the record wave of migrants who have

arrived in Ceuta in the last 24 hours. " 

We are going to restore order in (the) city and at our borders as quickly as possible

", promised the head of government, who indicated that he was going today to Ceuta as well as to Melilla, Spanish enclaves located in the north of the country. Morocco and the only land borders between Africa and the European Union.

According to Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, more than 6,000 migrants have entered Ceuta illegally since Monday.

He indicated that Spain had already returned 2,700 to Morocco while Pedro Sanchez assured him that all adult migrants who entered illegally would be deported, " 

under the agreements signed with Morocco for years

 ".

Morocco is a friendly country of Spain and must remain so, 

" insisted the socialist leader.

The European Parliament is sounding the alarm

MEPs held a plenary session on Tuesday, May 18, on the rescue at sea of ​​migrants who flock to the European Union on makeshift boats.

Above all, the debate underlined the deep divisions between EU countries and political families.

On the one hand, the most right-wing parties who are calling for a complete Australian-style border closure.

On the other, the left, which calls for real solidarity with asylum seekers and a European mission dedicated to rescue at sea.

667 dead is the number of people who perished this year in the Mediterranean.

How many more debates do we still have to demand from the European Parliament?

How many deaths?

How many families without news?

How many people without burial?

How many more corpses does it take for the policies of our states to change?

», Denounces Saskia Bricmont, Belgian environmentalist deputy.

The European Commissioner for Home Affairs has called on Morocco to prevent further tragedies and to prevent migrants from trying to reach Ceuta, reports our correspondent in Brussels,

Pierre Bénazet

.

In front of the European parliamentarians, Ylva Johansson underlined that the recurring dramas of the shipwrecks of migrants are one of the priorities of her proposal for an asylum and migration pact.

But for the French centrist MP Fabienne Keller, the EU could start by using the tools already available: “

The countries of first entry cannot manage the large arrivals of migrants through the Mediterranean on their own.

I first call on the States to re-establish the Malta declaration

 to relieve the countries of first entry ”.

Calls for the reception of migrants seem to be off to a bad start if the European countries themselves fail to show solidarity with each other as long as there is no agreement on the distribution of asylum seekers in Europe.

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To read also

: Arrival of 6,000 migrants in Ceuta: "It's unheard of, such an influx at once"

The situation in Ceuta and Melilla is unusual, not to say abnormal.

These Spanish enclaves on Moroccan territory are entry points into the European Union.

And as they benefit from favorable taxation, trade with Morocco, called smuggling on the Moroccan side, had developed considerably.

Tolerated until a year ago, women were notably allowed to cross the border with a limited quantity of goods.

The Moroccan population around Ceuta and Mellila has increased tenfold over the past 20 years, but the abrupt end a year ago of this trafficking by the Moroccan authorities has plunged the region into crisis.

The Covid-19 pandemic was grafted onto this, which could explain the despair of the thousands of Moroccans who took the risk of reaching the enclave of Ceuta by sea.

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