Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Why thousands of migrants entered Spain's Ceuta territory

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Why thousands of migrants entered Spain's Ceuta territory · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Global News podcast from the BBC. Hello,
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  Speaker 1: I'm Oliver Conway and today we're joined by our europe
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  Speaker 1: correspondent Sarah Rainsford to discuss the sudden rush of migrants
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  Speaker 1: from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Sauta. And Sarah
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  Speaker 1: first tell us about Sayuta or Theayuta as it's also called,
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  Speaker 1: and why over the years it has been a migrant hotspot.
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  Speaker 2: It's a part of Spain which is in North Africa,
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  Speaker 2: and it is relatively I say relatively, but relatively easy
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  Speaker 2: to reach for migrants who are trying to get to Europe.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a small, tiny, sort of pimpic really on
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  Speaker 2: the whole land mass of Africa, but it borders Morocco directly,
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  Speaker 2: and the border between Morocco and Seuta is a fence
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  Speaker 2: essentially which goes out a little way into the sea.
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  Speaker 2: So when people try to reach this sliver of European
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  Speaker 2: territory in Africa, then they usually do that by swimming
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  Speaker 2: generally several kilometers from further along the coast in Morocco,
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  Speaker 2: but then they have to go around that fence to
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  Speaker 2: make it to the beach in Seuta. It's complicated, but
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  Speaker 2: it is far less complicated, of course than spending five
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  Speaker 2: six days at sea trying to go from the coast
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  Speaker 2: of West Africa, for example, to the Canary Islands and
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  Speaker 2: other Spanish territory.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so tell us about this sudden rush of tens
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  Speaker 1: of thousands of people.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we now think according to the interium industry, the
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  Speaker 2: Spanish interior industry, it's around about fifty thousand people who
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  Speaker 2: initially made it across the border and into Sutan. Now
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  Speaker 2: that is unprecedented. It has never happened before. The only
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  Speaker 2: previous big surge in arrivals was around about eight thousand
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  Speaker 2: people back in twenty twenty one. Now, this time the
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  Speaker 2: surge was really quite extraordinary because some people were able
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  Speaker 2: simply to scramble onto the rocks and walk around the
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  Speaker 2: edge of the border fence that was at the beginning.
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  Speaker 2: A bit later it seen that most people had to swim,
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  Speaker 2: so they had to get out to see and then
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  Speaker 2: around the fence and landing then on the beaches of Sauta,
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  Speaker 2: and then the scenes there were again quite quite something
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  Speaker 2: to see because there were huge piles of inflatable rings,
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  Speaker 2: swimming aids, flippers that people have been using wet wetsuits,
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  Speaker 2: that people are ripped off when they got there, all
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  Speaker 2: abandoned on the beach, and euphoric scenes as the people
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  Speaker 2: who had made it too sort of this Spanish territory
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  Speaker 2: were celebrating and shouting Vivo Spaana and then making victory
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  Speaker 2: signs towards journalist cameras there.
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  Speaker 1: But we do know that in this rush a number
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  Speaker 1: of people did die.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, several dozen people lost their lives, most of them
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  Speaker 2: we understand, drowned. Some people in the crush and the
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  Speaker 2: chaos initially as people rushed towards the border. Now, I
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  Speaker 2: think the big question at this point in all of
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  Speaker 2: this is how it came to happen. Why were so
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  Speaker 2: many people amassing in that area and kind of given
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  Speaker 2: a signal it seems to head towards the border. Now
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  Speaker 2: the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, he is blaming human traffickers.
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  Speaker 2: He's saying that they have deceived young people primarily into
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  Speaker 2: crossing and luring them essentially to that crossing point. But
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  Speaker 2: it is clear that there was very little resistance, if any,
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  Speaker 2: from the images that we've seen, and that other people
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  Speaker 2: have studied resistance or prevention by the Moroccan border guards.
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  Speaker 2: So it's quite I think a big question at this point.
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  Speaker 2: You know how much the Moroccan border guards appeared to
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  Speaker 2: simply melt away, and how come so many people were
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  Speaker 2: able to reach that border crossing and then get pasted
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  Speaker 2: with relative ease.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, what do we know about the people who crossed,
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  Speaker 1: because in the past you've seen migrants from other parts
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  Speaker 1: of Africa go to Morocco to try to get into
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  Speaker 1: say you to or Melia. But I read a lot
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  Speaker 1: of reports that many of these were act from Moroccans.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does appear to be the case. And I
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  Speaker 2: think it's also really important to say that the Spanish
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  Speaker 2: Interior Minister is saying that in fact, half of those people,
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  Speaker 2: so around about twenty five thousand of the people who
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  Speaker 2: made that crossing have headed back in the other direction already,
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  Speaker 2: they've gone back to Morocco. I've seen some interviews with
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  Speaker 2: young Morocco men saying that they came when there was
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  Speaker 2: nothing in so to for them, no food, nowhere to sleep,
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  Speaker 2: and then there was no point in hanging around, and
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  Speaker 2: they simply turned around and went back through a hole
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  Speaker 2: in the fence or swam around the border. Crossing and
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  Speaker 2: back to Morocco. So that is quite extraordinary and quite unique,
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  Speaker 2: I think to understand why those people thought that there
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  Speaker 2: would be something better for them on the other side
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  Speaker 2: in the first place. But there are other people coming
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  Speaker 2: from other areas or other regions of Africa, and I
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  Speaker 2: think it's important to all to put this in the
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  Speaker 2: context of the much tighter controls that there have been
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  Speaker 2: recently off the coast of West Africa to prevent migrants
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  Speaker 2: from making the crossing towards the Canary Islands, for example,
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  Speaker 2: Spanish territory out in that direction, So that has in
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  Speaker 2: some senses squeeze people north, and it is one reason
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  Speaker 2: why some migrants from sub Saharan Africa will be trying
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  Speaker 2: to get to Europe through Sauta, through Milia, through those
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  Speaker 2: Spanish autonomous cities in the north of Africa.
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  Speaker 1: And what is happening to the people who haven't gone
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  Speaker 1: back to Morocco, those who are still in Saouta.
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  Speaker 2: Well, all the political statements have been really strong. So
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  Speaker 2: the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has headed straight to Seuta.
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  Speaker 2: From handling the wildfires in Spain, he's now handling this
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  Speaker 2: migrant crisis in this Spanish exclave and now here is
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  Speaker 2: They're saying, look, these people will be deported, they will
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  Speaker 2: be sent back to Morocco. It's important at this point
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  Speaker 2: to note as well that although Spain is EU territory
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  Speaker 2: and Morocco is not, of course, and that normally if
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  Speaker 2: somebody applies for asylum or the right to remain in
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  Speaker 2: the EU, that would have to be examined and considered
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  Speaker 2: on human rights grounds. Between Morocco and Spain, there is
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  Speaker 2: an arrangement that essentially allows Spain to push people back
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  Speaker 2: to Morocco and Morocco is supposed to take them. It is,
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  Speaker 2: i think, on the edge of migration legality, let's say.
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  Speaker 2: But it's something that happens, and so the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 2: of Pregre Sanchez is saying that these people will be
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  Speaker 2: pushed back, essentially deported to Morocco. But I think that's
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  Speaker 2: a lot easier said than done. There are at least
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five thousand people currently in sou They have
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  Speaker 2: nowhere to go, they have nowhere to stay. Lots of
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  Speaker 2: people are sleeping in the streets. I think the conditions
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  Speaker 2: are difficult. Perhaps some of them will just go back,
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  Speaker 2: but otherwise there is quite a big humanitarian issue for
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  Speaker 2: these Spanish government to contend with, and you would expect
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  Speaker 2: at some point for at least some of those people
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  Speaker 2: to be transferred to the mainland of Spain. That is
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  Speaker 2: what's happened in the past, although in the last crisis,
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  Speaker 2: the vast majority of the people who came across eventually
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  Speaker 2: were deported back to Morocco, and that happened very quickly.
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  Speaker 2: So I think the Spanish want this to happen as
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  Speaker 2: quickly as possible because the longer it goes on, the
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  Speaker 2: harder it is for them to handle.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also problems for them with Italy, which is
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  Speaker 1: threatening to suspend its free border movement between Spain and Italy.
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  Speaker 2: It is, but I think there's a lot of politics
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  Speaker 2: at work in those words. So very very quickly, as
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  Speaker 2: soon as those images began to spread over social media
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  Speaker 2: of primarily young men rushing across a border into EU territory,
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  Speaker 2: then very very quickly Italy's hard right Prime Minister Georgia
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  Speaker 2: Maloney went to social media and she talked about the
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  Speaker 2: security risks to Europe. She talked about the shocking images
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  Speaker 2: and she said that Italy would consider suspending its Schengen
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  Speaker 2: agreement with Spain, so that by which people can come
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  Speaker 2: from Spain to Italy with no impediment, no checks. Now
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  Speaker 2: there is no border between Italy and Spain. The only
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  Speaker 2: way that anyone could come here would be by flying.
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  Speaker 2: And it's pretty unlikely, let's say impossible, that undocumented migrants
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  Speaker 2: are about to border plane from Spain to Italy. So
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  Speaker 2: I think this is primarily politics. It's Maloney who's facing
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  Speaker 2: an election next year, losing votes to an even harder
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  Speaker 2: rights politician and trying to appeal to that electorate above all.
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  Speaker 2: But migration is her issue. She has a hard line
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  Speaker 2: on it, and she's reiterating that at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: And what are broader relations like between Spain and Morocco
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  Speaker 1: at the moment, because sometimes in the past we've seen
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  Speaker 1: these mass migrant events when there have been tensions between
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  Speaker 1: the two nations.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, And to be honest, the thing that sprung straight
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  Speaker 2: to my mind was Belarus and Poland, a period in
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  Speaker 2: which Belarus was accused of weaponizing migration by allowing migrants
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  Speaker 2: across the border into Poland at a period of tension
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  Speaker 2: in that relationship. And this looking at the Spanish situation
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  Speaker 2: with Morocco. There are some echoes of that here, certainly
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  Speaker 2: from the descriptions that we're hearing from on the ground,
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  Speaker 2: and certainly if we look back to what happened in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, when it was quite clear that the
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  Speaker 2: Moroccan authorities basically stepped back and allowed people to cross
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  Speaker 2: the border. The Spanish minister has been very clear to
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  Speaker 2: play that down and to say that Morocco is an ally,
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  Speaker 2: a close ally, and that they are cooperating because he
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  Speaker 2: quite frankly wants to be able to send people back
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  Speaker 2: to Morocco. So that's his public line. But the relationship
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  Speaker 2: is complicated. It's all about the Western Sahara region. It's
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  Speaker 2: all about sovereignty there, who recognizes who is as the
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  Speaker 2: rightful owner, if you like, of that territory, and the
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  Speaker 2: relationship between Spain, Morocco and Spain in Algeria, the other
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  Speaker 2: country in the mix there. So there is a complicated
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  Speaker 2: diplomatic relationship in the background, and it's something that people
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  Speaker 2: are pointing to as they try to explain what might
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  Speaker 2: have happened in this massive surge of people rushing for
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  Speaker 2: the border.
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  Speaker 1: Sarah, thank you, Sarah Rainsford our Southern Europe correspondent, talking
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  Speaker 1: to us from Rome. If you'd like to hear more
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  Speaker 1: from the Global News podcast, click the link below, but
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  Speaker 1: for now, thanks for watching.