Suddenly there is calm again on the beach of Ceuta.

More than 8,000 people had arrived there from Morocco since Monday.

Since late Tuesday evening, the rush was suddenly over.

The few Moroccans who tried swimming or on small boats to reach the Spanish exclave on Wednesday were stopped by the Guardia Civil.

The influx had already decreased on Tuesday afternoon after units of the Moroccan riot police positioned themselves along the fence.

Hans-Christian Roessler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, based in Madrid.

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    Hundreds of young Moroccans voluntarily left Ceuta and ran to the border on Wednesday after sleeping on the city streets for two nights.

    According to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, 5,600 people had returned to Morocco by Wednesday afternoon - with the exception of unaccompanied minors, the number of whom was given between 1,500 and 2,000.

    Many of them are temporarily housed in warehouses behind the border fence.

    Some of them also reportedly made their way home voluntarily, while the others are waiting to be taken to mainland Spain.

    Not a spontaneous action

    The Moroccans who had come to Ceuta were joined by Africans from the Ivory Coast and other sub-Saharan countries who had long been waiting in Morocco for an opportunity to get to Europe. Apparently it wasn't a spontaneous action. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo quoted several young Moroccans on Wednesday who claimed they had been officially encouraged to go to Ceuta: “They told us they would not stop us, the border was open. “A Spanish police union distributed a video showing a Moroccan police officer opening a gate in the border fence to the Spanish exclave for young people.

    The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez speaks diplomatically of an "unusual" crisis in Ceuta. He makes it clear that it is less about a new wave of illegal migration from North Africa. On Wednesday he called the events a “challenge” by Morocco, which he accused of “lack of respect” towards Spain and the EU. However, the Spanish government is avoiding any public connection with the Western Sahara conflict, which in Madrid is seen as the real reason for the recent confrontation.

    Morocco has long been increasing the pressure on Madrid to finally recognize the claims to the former Spanish colony. The Spanish permission to have the head of the Western Sahara Liberation Front, Polisario, who is ill with Covid, treated in a hospital in Logroño then apparently broke the barrel: on Wednesday, the Moroccan Minister for Human Rights, Mustafa Ramid, alleged that Spain was open defeated the side of the Polisario and their ally Algeria. Spain would have to pay a high price if it "discredited" Morocco, wrote Ramid on Facebook.

    Morocco met with clear rejection not only in Madrid, but also in Brussels. "Europe will not be intimidated by anyone," said Vice President of the EU Commission Margaritis Schinas on Spanish radio on Wednesday in a clear allusion to Morocco. In the past few months there have already been “some attempts to instrumentalize migration. We can't let that happen, ”he said. Ceuta belongs to Europe, and the border there is a European border, stressed Schinas and promised help from the EU.

    For Spain, however, the crisis is not over yet. The Supreme Court in Madrid has summoned Polisario boss Brahim Ghali for June 1st. There are two trials against him in Madrid: he is accused of torture, murder and illegal detention of dissidents in Polisario camps in the Algerian desert. According to information from the Spanish newspaper El País, Ghali refuses to comply. Allegedly he wants to clarify how to proceed with the Algerian embassy. The fact that Morocco's number one public enemy had traveled to Spain with an Algerian passport under a false name had increased the outrage in Rabat, whose relationship with neighboring Algeria has been very tense for many years.