Spanish enclave of Ceuta under pressure from Moroccan migrants seeking to reach Europe

Migrants try to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, near Fnideq, in northern Morocco, on September 15, 2024.

The situation is exceptional. Since Wednesday, September 11, approximately 4,000 Moroccans – including nearly one hundred and fifty minors – suspected of having wanted to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta illegally have been arrested or turned back, according to the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, while messages circulating on social networks called for people to join this territory on Sunday, September 15.

While the police pushed back hundreds of people gathered near the border that day, most were arrested beforehand in the surrounding towns of M’diq, Tetouan and Tangier, according to activists. Officially, no one managed to cross to the Spanish side, but according to reports, around twenty individuals from the town of El-Jadida, 500 kilometres to the south, managed to do so.

The significant presence of Moroccan citizens raises questions, as these attempts to force their way through have so far involved people from sub-Saharan Africa. On 17 and 18 May 2021, an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 Moroccans entered Ceuta amid a diplomatic crisis between Rabat and Madrid; Morocco then criticised Spain for welcoming the leader of the Sahrawi independence movement, Brahim Ghali, to its soil to receive treatment. “But these departures had benefited from the tacit complicity of the Moroccan authorities »says researcher Ali Zoubeidi, who specializes in migration issues and is conducting a study on site.

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Nothing comparable today, assures the latter, who sees in the episode of September 15 the sign of a new modus operandi: “It is no longer clandestinity in small groups, sometimes with the help of smugglers, as the Moroccans used to do, but a massive mobilization and an open confrontation with the forces of law and order. »

Diving suit

Although it is not new, the use of social networks appears more central than ever in the planning of these crossing attempts. Entire communities are thus organizing themselves, by city or by neighborhood, through groups on WhatsApp or Facebook.

The influence of TikTok, where would-be migrants document their experiences, is considered considerable by many observers. Widely cited in the Spanish press, the example of Chaimae El Grini illustrates the full weight of this very popular social network in Morocco. Posted on August 21 on her personal account, the photo of this 19-year-old Moroccan woman already has more than 4 million views. Originally from Martil, 35 km south of Ceuta, she appears all smiles in a diving suit, wet hair and thumbs up, after a five-hour swim at the end of which she reached the enclave.

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