There is an appeal on social media for a new invasion of the Spanish exclaves. Albares warns: “Whoever enters illegally will be repatriated.” Madrid praises Rabat: Morocco’s collaboration to bring back illegal immigrants is decisive.
The crisis of Ceuta it might not be over. Come on social networks in fact, new appeals are circulating inviting thousands of people to head towards the borders of Spanish exclaves and the day indicated for a possible new assault is sSaturday August 15th. After what happened the July 30th, Madrid he doesn’t want to take risks and tries to nip a new mobilization in the bud. The message is clear: whoever will be able to illegally enter a Ceuta or Melilla he will have no possibility of using the two cities as a gateway to Europe, but he will be repatriated. The Spanish Foreign Minister reiterated this yesterday José Manuel Albaresarrived at Ceuta to meet the president of the autonomous city Juan Jesus Vivas. The head of Spanish diplomacy has guaranteed that Madrid intends to bring back Morocco “everyone, down to the last person” among those who crossed the border illegally during the previous wave.
But above all Albares issued a warning directly to those who might be tempted to participate in the new mobilization announced via the internet: “Do not jeopardize your life, your money and your future in an adventure doomed to failure.” Words that show how much Madrid seriously consider the risk that the digital buzz could once again turn into thousands of people concentrated in front of the Spanish borders. According to Albares, the misinformation propagated through social networks and messaging platforms played an important role in the events of July 30th. A completely distorted reading of a recent ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court regarding migrants arriving by sea also appears to have pushed many people towards Ceuta. The result would have been the spread of the belief that reaching Spanish territory, especially by swimming across the border, could make repatriation more difficult or even prevent it. A thesis that the Sánchez government now wants to definitively cancel. «Whoever enters illegally a Ceuta or Melilla he must know that he will be repatriated. No court ruling, misrepresented on social media, has changed our position,” he insisted Albares. Madrid is also working together with European Commission and digital platforms to counter the content used to fuel new mobilisations. The immediate goal is to prevent appeals for the August 15th produce un other mass pressure on the two exclaves.
Without Rabat the crisis would have been much more difficult to manage
Then there is another element on which the Spanish minister insisted: the behavior of Morocco. Albares he ruled that out Rabat favored the arrivals on 30 July and, on the contrary, attributed a decisive role to the Moroccan authorities in containing the emergency. As Le360 reports, the head of Spanish diplomacy spoke openly of “essential cooperation”. The Morocco in fact, it would have agreed from the first hours to take back its citizens who had entered Spain illegally without imposing political conditions or asking for compensation.
«From the beginning, the Morocco he spoke in favor of immediate restitution. He didn’t ask for anything in return,” Albares underlined. A detail that is anything but secondary. The real problem of repatriations in Europe, in fact, does not only consist in identifying those who do not have the right to stay, but in convincing the countries of origin to accept their return. Procedures that can drag on for months or come to a complete standstill when the cooperation of the State concerned is lacking. TO Ceuta the opposite happened. «The main difficulty that European countries generally encounter in managing irregular immigration lies in the impossibility of organizing repatriations when the country of origin refuses to cooperate. Here, however, exactly the opposite happens”, explained the minister. The version provided by Madrid therefore coincides with that of the Moroccan authorities, according to whom the attack was behind July 30th there would not have been a single cause, but an explosive combination of online misinformationactivities of organizations involved in trafficking human beings and false expectations created by unfounded interpretations of the decisions of the Spanish judiciary. The size of the mobilization explains why the alert remains high. According to data released by the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, almost 40,000 people attempted to reach Ceuta, while 1,135 attempted to enter Melilla. Rabat also claims that all those who managed to arrive in Melilla were immediately returned to Moroccan territory. Now the focus shifts to August 15th. Morocco has assured Spain of its willingness to prevent a repeat of what happened at the end of July and the two governments are coordinating their respective initiatives. However, the decisive game will also be played on the digital field, where messages aimed at convincing other people to head towards the borders continue to circulate. Madrid therefore tries to break the mechanism before it is too late: no promise of entry into Europe, no shortcut through Ceuta or Melilla and, above all, repatriation for those who cross the border illegally.
