MADRID – The President of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, has asserted that Europe can no longer maintain an unconditional cooperation policy with Morocco following a massive influx of migrants into Ceuta. During his visit to Brussels on Tuesday, Vivas, who is affiliated with the People's Party (PP), emphasized that the recent events should prompt Brussels to reconsider its collaborative approach with Rabat. The significant arrival of over 80,000 irregular migrants from Morocco into Ceuta last July has been labeled by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as a "violation of Spain's territorial integrity," triggering an unprecedented national security crisis.
The Disconnect in Spain’s Defense of Morocco
As the political ramifications of the Ceuta crisis threaten to spiral out of control, Vivas joined forces with Javier Zarzalejos, a Member of the European Parliament and head of the LIBE Committee, to highlight that Morocco cannot sustain a policy of cooperation and collaboration with Europe if it fails to respect borders. Vivas articulated concerns that Morocco is willing to leverage border controls and migration pressures to jeopardize Spain's territorial integrity, potentially leading to the collapse of the reception structures and destabilizing Ceuta both economically and socially.
Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other enclave in North Africa, are completely surrounded by Morocco. Vivas insisted that a stronger commitment from the European Union (EU) is essential along the bloc's only land border with Africa. He called for financial aid and security assistance, including the permanent deployment of Frontex in the city, as well as special status within the EU for both enclaves. This request aligns with a proposal put forth by Prime Minister Sánchez in Parliament last week, seeking full integration of Ceuta and Melilla into the EU.
Calls for Accountability and Future Safeguards
Vivas, who has been governing Ceuta for 25 years, expressed disbelief that Moroccan authorities were unaware of the impending surge of migrants—a claim supported by a Spanish police report suggesting that the Moroccan government orchestrated the crisis. Meanwhile, the Spanish government has refrained from directly pointing fingers at Rabat over the matter. Vivas questioned, "Did they really not know? If they did, why didn’t they inform us considering our good cooperation?" He underscored that the citizens of Ceuta are most invested in fostering fruitful relations between the EU and Morocco, while also noting that this is not the first instance Morocco has utilized migration pressures to challenge the territorial integrity of Ceuta, Spain, and the EU. He referenced the 2021 border crisis, where Morocco allowed 10,000 migrants to storm Ceuta as a political retaliation against Madrid.
Vivas concluded by insisting that measures must be taken to ensure that such occurrences never happen again, stating that neither Spain nor Europe should allow this kind of manipulation to occur in the future. As reported by euractiv.com.
