The Spanish government is dealing with the fallout from Ceuta

Lisbon. Following the mass arrival of over 50,000 migrants from Morocco within a few hours, there is still no ‘day after’ in Ceuta, as the crisis is not yet over. Although most of the migrants have already turned back, thousands remain and the local reception facilities are struggling to cope. Around 860 (though this is a provisional figure) are minors, the ‘MENA’ – unaccompanied foreign minors – who are such a key issue in Spanish election campaigns, as Vox is forcing the People’s Party’s regional allies to reject redistribution amongst the various autonomous communities, something the government is attempting to do precisely to ease the pressure on the most vulnerable points along the African border, such as Ceuta and the Canary Islands. Furthermore, the tourism-based economy is on its knees. Many shops remain closed, and the patron saint’s festivities in honour of the Virgen de África, scheduled for the first week of August, have been cancelled. This has only happened once before, during the pandemic, and in 1936, at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Last but not least, the loss of life: at present, 88 bodies are reported to have been recovered from the water. According to the Moroccan authorities’ calculations, the figure is only around ten, and this discrepancy in the death toll alone could be enough to highlight a different approach and sensibility. Instead, the Spanish government has chosen to engage in a verbal and statistical battle solely with its European partners, whilst doing nothing more than thanking neighbouring Morocco for its cooperation in the repatriation process. No mention has been made of the sudden disappearance of border controls, nor of the suspected use of human beings as pawns in the complex and unscrupulous game between Morocco and Algeria over the fate of Western Sahara – a game that is increasingly holding Madrid in check, whose foreign policy is influenced not only by its Moroccan neighbour but also by its need for Algerian gas (which accounts for a third of its requirements). And so Pedro Sánchez blames the human trafficking mafias. A reaction that is, curiously, not dissimilar to that of Giorgia Meloni, when, at the time of the Cutro tragedy, she promised to fight people smugglers ‘across the entire globe’.

According to Sánchez – a view subsequently endorsed by the Moroccan government – it was the mafia who spread false rumours about Spain’s ‘open doors’, triggering a disastrous ‘pull factor’. These false rumours reportedly concern, on the one hand, the recent Supreme Court ruling, which makes it more difficult to carry out immediate pushbacks of those arriving by swimming. The judges ruled that these people are entitled to legal assistance because they do not cross a physical border barrier, as is the case with fences. The other hoax concerns the regularisation plan implemented by the government, which will certainly not apply to foreigners who arrived yesterday.

Both measures, however, are causing concern amongst those in the know. Law enforcement unions anticipate a considerable bureaucratic burden; suffice it to say that the regularisation scheme was intended for 500,000 foreign nationals and has already exceeded one million applications. The credibility of Sánchez’s migration policy will also depend on all this. For the Foreign Secretary, José Manuel Albares, this is nothing more than “a reactionary international” that has decided to turn against the Spanish socialist government. But within that government, a first dissenting voice is emerging: that of the Defence Minister, Margarida Robles, who defends the work of the intelligence services and calls on Morocco to play its part fully in establishing who is responsible. The Minister of the Interior, Marlaska, closely followed by the government spokesperson, had denied the existence of any reports indicating a situation such as the one that subsequently occurred. But the Spanish intelligence services, it seems, had informed the government, and those responsible will have to be identified in Madrid as well. Meanwhile, the only head to roll so far has been that of an obscure official from the Department of National Security, who on Friday had already published the figures held by the Ministry of the Interior regarding arrivals recorded in Ceuta: the provisional figure was 49,000. The headline in the newspaper El Mundo on Tuesday morning summed it up: “120 hours without explanations regarding the most serious attack on Spain’s integrity: divisions within the government, silence on Morocco and an innocent woman sacked”.