Ceuta tries to gradually return to normality after an unprecedented recent migration crisis. The autonomous city, which was overwhelmed by the entry of up to 60,000 young migrants from Morocco, has begun to recover activity in its streets, with businesses reopening and neighbors trying to resume their routine after two days of maximum tension.
Even so, normality is still partial. Hundreds of Moroccans continue to wander through the city after spending a second night outdoors, while many others are making their way back to their country through the same point they entered: the border pier of El Tarajal. There, containment barriers of 500 meters in length have begun to be installed, a measure with which the Government aims to deter new arrivals and reinforce control of maritime access.
A crisis with at least 67 deceased
The crisis already leaves a particularly serious figure: at least 67 people have died in their attempt to cross the border. This toll turns what happened into a humanitarian and security emergency of enormous dimension, with a direct impact on the city, on relations between Spain and Morocco, and on the European border debate.
Now that Ceuta is beginning to regain some calm, the question hovering over political and operational management is whether the crisis could have been avoided or, at least, reduced. The focus is on whether intelligence and information services detected in time that thousands of Moroccans from various cities in the country were approaching the border in search of the opportune moment to enter Spain.
Marlaska denies there were prior reports
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has been blunt in the press conference held this Saturday at the Government Delegation in Ceuta, after meeting with police commanders in charge of the operation. When asked whether the intelligence services had warned that a massive assault could occur, the minister responded: “No, there is no report regarding the situation that occurred.”
In the Government, the idea is spreading that the crisis could have been minimized if information from the National Intelligence Center, the CNI, had at least reached the Ministry of the Interior, the department responsible for border security. “It caught us by surprise,” admit government sources, who explain that the Interior was focused at the beginning of the week on the fires that were ravaging the center of the Peninsula.
From migratory spike to massive entry
Until Thursday, the situation was interpreted as a migratory spike with a strong impact on the reception system in Ceuta, already very strained by the continuous arrival of people swimming. This increase occurred after a recent ruling by the Supreme Court that determined that hot returns of immigrants intercepted at sea are not allowed, a criterion that had generated concern in the autonomous city.
The qualitative leap came on Thursday at noon, when hundreds of people began to enter not only by swimming but also on foot, while Moroccan gendarmes looked the other way. From then on, border pressure multiplied and the city was overwhelmed by a massive arrival that forced the deployment of police resources, the suspension of activities, the closure of businesses, and the activation of emergency measures.
Marlaska defends Morocco as a reliable partner
Despite doubts about Rabat's role, the Government publicly maintains that Morocco has collaborated at all times. Grande-Marlaska insisted on this line on Saturday and stated that the neighboring country is not only not a threat but is a “truly reliable partner” for Spain.
The message seeks to protect the diplomatic relationship with Rabat in the midst of the crisis, but it does not convince all police commanders. Sources from the Civil Guard put that reading in quarantine and remind that the arrival of buses to Fnideq, the Moroccan town of Castillejos, could hardly have gone unnoticed by the Moroccan authorities before thousands of people advanced toward the border.
The question about the information that did not arrive
A commander of the Civil Guard cited in the analysis of the crisis argues that if Morocco is a reliable partner, it should have shared with Spain the information about those movements of people toward the border. The question is whether, with that data, the Government could have anticipated and reduced the impact of a massive entry that ultimately overwhelmed Ceuta.
That is now one of the most delicate points of the debate: whether Spanish intelligence failed, whether Morocco did not report relevant movements in its territory, or whether the Government did not assess in time the signals that were already pointing to increasing pressure at the border. Interior denies that there were specific reports about what was going to happen, but the dimension of the crisis makes a review of the alert mechanisms inevitable.
Barriers at Tarajal and gradual return to calm
While that debate opens, the Government has begun to physically reinforce the jetty of Tarajal with containment barriers. The deployment seeks to prevent new massive entries by water and offer the Civil Guard more operational margin at one of the most vulnerable points of the Ceuta border.
Ceuta is now moving towards a fragile normality. Businesses are reopening cautiously, many migrants are returning to Morocco, and the authorities are trying to stabilize the situation, but the crisis leaves several pending questions: why was the massive arrival not anticipated, what role did Morocco play, how will new similar episodes be avoided, and what European response will a city that remains one of the most sensitive borders of Spain and the European Union receive.