The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, is traveling to Ceuta to follow ‘in situ’ the migratory crisis affecting the autonomous city, to which thousands of people from Morocco arrived this Thursday, of whom at least 18 have lost their lives at sea and which has completely overwhelmed its reception capacity.
The migration crisis that has erupted again in Ceuta, this time with a flood of more than 40,000 people according to initial estimates, and already with about twenty deaths, “has its origin in an interpretation of the Supreme Court’s decision, which prohibits the return of people who enter by swimming, which has been exploited by mafias and criminal organizations to take advantage of the extreme vulnerability of migrants.”
Ceuta is, this Friday, many cities in one, after yesterday, in a matter of hours, thousands of Moroccans – the vast majority young, but also families – crossed the breakwater of El Tarajal to set foot on Spanish territory. The autonomous city looks like a dawn at any music festival, with hundreds of youngsters lying on the grass in parks or on the beach sand, sleeping in swimwear, with no more luggage to protect than some plastic bags. It also looks like a besieged city, with Army vehicles patrolling back and forth, giving a warlike tint to the biggest bilateral migration crisis between Spain and Morocco since 2021. Another face is that of a city running at half capacity, like on a holiday, with neighbors in their homes, and their bars and shops closed: yesterday afternoon they decided to pull down the shutters amid the uncertainty generated by the massive entry that could shatter any previous statistics.
“Of what am I accused?”, asks the protagonist of The Trial. “Mr. K, you don’t mean to say you are innocent?”, they answer him. We still do not know what Pedro Sánchez is guilty of and perhaps we never will, when after a few years he gets out of prison, and I don’t know who will be free…
Human-caused climate change multiplied by 20 the conditions favorable for wildfires in the central peninsula this year. In other words, it made the extreme weather conditions that fueled these fires 20 times more likely than in a preindustrial world without warming. And in the case of the southwest region of France hit by the fires, climate change caused by human activities now makes disasters of this magnitude twice as likely.
Without a doubt, the news of the day is the thousands of young Moroccans who have crossed the border in Ceuta and overwhelmed the police and immigration services, creating a humanitarian crisis in the autonomous city that Spain and Morocco were trying to…
The Supreme Court ruled on July 8 that “hot returns” are not allowed for migrants intercepted at sea who attempt to enter the cities of Ceuta and Melilla by swimming. A few weeks later, the autonomous city has been experiencing a massive influx, for days now, of thousands of migrants, mostly Moroccan, many of them swimming. The Ministry of the Interior rules out that the Alaouite authorities have ceased to carry out their surveillance functions. Yesterday, the 30th, was Throne Day in Morocco.
A Spanish man, 82 years old and a resident of La Sénia (Montsià), has drowned this Thursday in a private pool in the municipality, according to Civil Protection.
The Beni Enzar border, the only operational one between Spain and Morocco in Melilla, remains closed, according to the Government delegation in the autonomous city, which has asked the public not to go to the border perimeter in order not to hinder the work of the Security Forces and Corps.
The units in charge of border control in Ceuta have recovered from the water the lifeless bodies of at least 12 people in the last 24 hours. There are already 40 foreigners found dead in Ceuta waters in the attempt to swim across from Morocco so far this year.
