Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described last week’s sudden influx of 50,000 migrants into the exclave of Ceuta in North Africa as an “attack,” but has been careful to accuse people smugglers rather than the Moroccan authorities of orchestrating it.

That diplomatic position from Madrid is coming under pressure, however, from Spanish politicians from both the right and left, who argue that Rabat has questions to answer about the cross-border surge, in which 88 people died.

From the moment massive numbers of people began to enter the city last Thursday, Spanish Civil Guard forces reported that Moroccan gendarmes who normally assist in securing the border had inexplicably left their posts.

That led many to suspect that such a large flow of people could hardly be masterminded without the acquiescence of Morocco, which claims the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla as occupied territories.

Diplomatic speculation has also centered on whether Rabat could be flexing its muscles over Spain’s recent rapprochement with Algeria, which supports self-determination in Western Sahara — a territory claimed by Morocco.

“Let’s call things by their name: Morocco is using human beings to attack our sovereignty,” said Eduardo Rubiño, lawmaker with the Sánchez-allied, left-wing Más Madrid party.

Ceuta Mayor Juan Jesús Vivas from the conservative People’s Party on Monday said the situation could not be characterized as “a migration crisis” because “people have the perception that this, if not orchestrated, was encouraged or permitted” by Moroccan authorities.

Vivas conceded that Madrid had to do its utmost to continue working with Rabat, but also told Spanish newspaper El País that “Morocco has shown us that it is not reliable.”

Since the outset of the crisis, Spain’s Socialist-led government has prioritized smooth relations with Morocco, which will prove critical to resolving the crisis, rather than pinning the blame on Rabat. 

A spokesperson for Spain’s foreign ministry insisted “the relationship with Morocco is excellent, and coordination on migration and other issues remains very strong.”

While visiting Ceuta on Friday, Sánchez characterized the crisis as “an attack, a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity,” but made no attempt to link Rabat to the operation, which he attributed to “mafias that traffic in human beings.”

Instead, he described Morocco as “an ally” and thanked Rabat for its help in repatriating the people who had entered the exclave without authorization.

Political liability

Moroccan authorities avoided addressing the Ceuta crisis until late on Sunday evening, when Interior Ministry Spokesperson Rachid El Khalfi delivered a statement blaming the sudden influx of migrants on social media posts “which aimed to create the illusion of easy access to the European space without legal consequences.”

“The Kingdom of Morocco will continue to be, as it has always been with its partners, a reliable and responsible partner, firmly committed to strengthening international cooperation and coordination in the fight against irregular migration and human trafficking,” El Khalfi said.

Spanish opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who heads the center-right People’s Party, this weekend demanded a clarification of “what failed in co-operation with Morocco” and said that Spain had a right to demand that Rabat deliver on its obligations on border security.

He said he wished Spain to “have a relationship of good neighborliness, cooperation, and mutual respect with Morocco,” but that “there are things that shouldn’t be done, and if they are, they must be met with a strong response.”

Still, the People’s Party has focused its broader political strategy on the Sánchez government’s failure to anticipate the sudden influx of migrants, rather than focusing on Morocco.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska this weekend claimed the country’s National Intelligence Center, which handles both foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence under the Ministry of Defense, had failed to warn Madrid of any developments on the border.

But intelligence sources quoted by Spain’s Cadena Ser radio network on Monday said that in the lead-up to last week’s crisis, the interior ministry had been warned that a mass entry into Ceuta could take place at any moment. Moreover, Spanish media reported that in July the ministry’s own Office for Refugees and Asylum warned that the growing number of migrants swimming to Ceuta could soon overwhelm the exclave.

“Sánchez and his government lie — as they always do,” People’s Party spokesperson Ester Muñoz said. “The government was warned by its intelligence services and did nothing.”

Brussels brawl

Madrid’s inability to anticipate the crisis will be under scrutiny at an emergency meeting of the EU’s ambassadors on Monday, and at a separate extraordinary summit of the bloc’s interior ministers scheduled for Tuesday.

Over the past five days, a plethora of EU leaders and far-right parties have slammed Spain for losing control of one of the bloc’s external borders and effectively bringing the Ceuta crisis upon itself by moving to grant legal status to 1.2 million unauthorized migrants.

In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, 22 of the bloc’s leaders on Saturday called for EU-level oversight on national policies “that can serve as pull factors.”

Ahead of Monday’s meeting of EU ambassadors, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares pushed back against Madrid’s critics in other European capitals and said his country would “demand solidarity from all the States of the European Union.”

“Spain currently has the lowest number of irregular entries on the Mediterranean route,” Albares said during an interview on Spanish state broadcaster TVE. Rather than question Madrid’s efforts, he insisted that the EU’s role was to support and assist Spain in the defense of “the only two European and Spanish cities that share a land border with Africa.”

At the same time that he chided critical member countries for their attitude, Spain’s foreign minister praised Rabat for its help in resolving the crisis.

“From the very beginning, Morocco offered its cooperation to try to prevent this flow of people and, above all, to ensure their immediate return, as is happening,” he said. “The vast majority of those who entered are already back in Morocco, and Morocco continues to offer this cooperation so that every last person who entered Ceuta returns to Morocco.”  Politico