Ceuta crisis: ‘No evidence Morocco behind border surge’
There is no evidence Morocco was behind the mass influx of migrants that overwhelmed the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez told lawmakers Thursday. Sanchez's comments followed a police report that emerged this week saying that the mass entry into Ceuta was not a spontaneous migration event but a planned and phased operation designed to overwhelm border controls.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has stated that there is no solid evidence that Morocco was behind the mass influx of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July. According to Sánchez, no government institution, diplomatic service, European Commission, or international organization has provided evidence that Morocco planned or carried out the incident.
A police report, however, suggests that the mass entry into Ceuta was a planned and phased operation designed to overwhelm border controls. The report also alleges that some Moroccan police officers guided crossings into the enclave.
The crisis saw over 70,000 migrants cross into Ceuta from Morocco on July 30 and 31, resulting in scores of deaths, mostly by drowning. Sánchez has criticized Moroccan government comments about Ceuta since the crisis began, calling them "unacceptable".
Brief written by urgent.news from France 24, RTE News, Politico EU, Le Monde English, New Straits Times — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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