Spanish Police Report Points to Moroccan ‘Total Permissiveness’ During Ceuta Migrant Crisis
Translated from French and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- A Spanish police report said Moroccan forces deployed fewer personnel than usual and showed what investigators described as “total permissiveness” during the mass arrivals in Ceuta on July 30 and 31.
- Investigators cited migrant statements and videos that they said could indicate facilitation of irregular immigration, while the report stopped short of assigning responsibility to a government or individual.
- The findings could put Spain’s government under pressure because Madrid has consistently exonerated Morocco over the sudden arrival of tens of thousands of migrants.
A Spanish police report has cast new doubt on Morocco’s role in the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta, describing a border deployment that was “significantly smaller than usual” and a response marked by “total permissiveness.”
The report, reviewed by AFP after details were published by El Español, concerns the influx into the Spanish territory in North Africa on July 30 and 31. Tens of thousands of migrants arrived suddenly, and Spain’s government has consistently rejected any Moroccan responsibility. Opposition figures have repeatedly criticized that position.
Significantly smaller than usual.
Investigators from Spain’s National Centre for Immigration and Borders said accounts from many migrants converged on the view that Moroccan police numbers around the border were unusually low. They noted that the Royal Throne Day celebrations in Rincón and M’Diq took place on July 30, but said the Moroccan response to the mobilization and mass entry was, at minimum, completely permissive.
The report said there had been no serious effort on July 30 to reduce, disperse or move the crowd away from the border perimeter. The concentration of public-security resources for the official celebrations should have enabled firmer control on July 31, investigators wrote, but the response developed more slowly than the situation required.
Total permissiveness.
Migrant testimonies and video footage circulated in the media and on social networks, the investigators added, showed behavior that in some cases was compatible with facilitating irregular immigration. Some scenes, they said, appeared to suggest surveillance and control of the movement of people entering and leaving.
Spain’s Interior Ministry responded repeatedly by citing senior police officials who said no report had attributed responsibility for the assault to any government, service or individual because the intellectual author remained unknown. The report therefore raises questions about Morocco’s conduct without formally assigning responsibility for organizing the arrivals.
No report had been issued attributing responsibility for the assault to any government, service or person, since the intellectual author of the assault remains unknown to this day.
About this summary
Originally published by Le Temps in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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