The migrant crisis in Ceuta worsens - Sanchez accuses: "Israel spread disinformation"
Pedro Sanchez accused Israel, Russia, and the far-right of attempting to "divide Spain and Europe over the issue of migration." The Prime Minister ruled out any possibility of involvement by Moroccan authorities in the breach by migrants who flooded the Spanish enclave in North Africa.
In search of those to blame: Russia and Israel spread and amplified false information related to the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta, a Spanish North African enclave, last month, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said today (Monday), citing a study by the European Union's foreign policy body.
"After July 30 and 31, rumors and false information spread from social networks linked to both Russia and Israel, and from an international far-right organization that always uses migration not only to attack Spain, but also to attack Europe and divide it," Sanchez told Cadena SER radio. Sanchez said it was "clear" that both countries used the crisis to criticize the Spanish government, as they were in dispute with Madrid over its position on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The Spanish Prime Minister also ruled out any responsibility on the part of the Moroccan authorities for the sudden influx of migrants who arrived on Spanish territory. "No intelligence service with which the Spanish government usually cooperates questions, or rather, suggests any doubt, regarding the involvement of the Moroccan authorities in one way or another," he said.
The vast majority of the approximately 70,000 people who entered Ceuta have since been returned to Morocco, according to Spanish authorities, but thousands remain in the enclave and their presence is creating a crisis that Sanchez's government is struggling to manage.
The latest incident occurred on Saturday, when four Moroccan migrants were arrested on suspicion of throwing stones at a patrol of Spanish soldiers. One of the soldiers fell and was injured during the pursuit of the attackers, a police spokesman told AFP. This was the second such event in a few days. It was preceded by an ambush set up in the early hours of Thursday for a military vehicle carrying four soldiers, at which about 70 migrants threw stones and other objects. The soldiers fled and called for police assistance, and one of them was slightly injured by a stone. 12 migrants, all Moroccans, were arrested following the attack, and eleven of them were deported to Morocco according to local reports.
Residents of Ceuta, an enclave with an area of only 18 square kilometers, have been holding regular protests since the mass breach, claiming it has created security and sanitation problems in the city. On Thursday, the protests escalated into clashes between locals and police: police stormed protesters on one of the beaches after a group of them entered the area where the migrants sleep, and the migrants' belongings were set on fire during the riots.
The number of migrants remaining in Ceuta is disputed between the parties. Out of more than 70,000 who entered the enclave at the end of July, by swimming or on foot from the Moroccan side, the vast majority returned to Morocco within hours. The left-wing government in Spain estimates that between 3,500 and 7,000 people remain, while the heads of Ceuta claim that there are at least ten thousand.
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska called for calm on Friday. "Violence is not the answer," he said in parliament, "I call for calm and an end to all forms of violence, because violence is not the way to solve a complex problem like the one Ceuta is facing." He also accused commentators and right-wing figures of "inciting hatred and confrontation" in the city. The head of the Ceuta government, Juan Jesus Vivas, said in an official speech that peaceful protests "to demand a return to routine" are justified, but warned that the authorities would act against anyone who commits acts of vandalism. "We reject any use of any kind of violence," he said, adding that "no one can and no one should take the law into their own hands."
