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Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday that a mass influx of at least 72,000 migrants to the enclave of Ceuta a month ago was still under investigation, while denouncing “fake information” spread by the “ultra-right.”
“After July 30 and 31, there was a spread of rumours and disinformation, from social networks linked both to Russia and to Israel, and to an ultra-right international that always uses migration not only to attack Spain, but also to attack Europe and divide it,” Sánchez told Cadena Ser radio.
Sánchez also ruled out any responsibility on the part of the Moroccan authorities in the mass migrant crossing into Ceuta.
“No intelligence service with which the Spanish government normally cooperates sheds any doubt, or rather, suggests any doubt, about the involvement in one way or another of the Moroccan authorities,” Sánchez said.
The Spanish government plans to allocate €165 million to Ceuta’s recovery, an emergency package of measures that will be approved by the Council of Ministers on Tuesday.
The sum will be added to the medium-term recovery plan worth €180 million, according to local media, in a move previously announced by First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo.
The new package aims to revive the local economy and strengthen public services after the mass influx of migrants disrupted activity in the autonomous city and shaped the start of the new political year.
Of the total, €80 million will be channelled into Ceuta’s economy over the next four months, and another €70 million is earmarked for 2027.
Last week, Spain asked the European Commission (EC) for the support from Frontex and Europol to assist with the screening of migrants who are staying irregularly in Ceuta, according to several Spanish media outlets.
Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has asked the EC for Frontex, Europol and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) to “reinforce the device set up to address the management of the triage and subsequent processing of the personal files of the immigrants who still remain in Ceuta irregularly.”
The Interior Ministry also demanded the extension of Operation Minerva, a joint initiative of the Spanish police and the EU border protection agency Frontex.
Madrid ask that that operation run until 2 September until “the situation created in the autonomous city is resolved.”
Madrid also asked for the ” assistance of the European Union Agency for Asylum in conducting interviews and providing interpreters” in order to triage migrants.
Tensions have been high in the territory of 80,000 people since at least 72,000 people crossed into Ceuta over several days in July, triggering a Europe-wide migrant alert.
Spain’s leftist government says most have since left the enclave of 18.5 square kilometres but thousands remain wandering the streets and sleeping on beaches.
Demonstrations have intensified in recent days, with some protesters clashing with police on Thursday at a beach where migrants have been sleeping. Some of their belongings were burned.
Ceuta and Melilla, another small Spanish territory in North Africa, form Europe’s only land border with Africa.
Additional sources • AP, AFP