The European Left Party (EL) today accused the government of King Mohammed VI of Morocco of causing the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta as a form of “political blackmail” against Spain and the European Union (EU).
In a manifesto on the migration crisis in Ceuta, the Spanish city on the border with Morocco that registered a massive entry of migrants on July 30, the EL, which brings together European anti-capitalist left-wing parties, maintains that what happened was not a “fortuitous event.”
“It was a criminal maneuver orchestrated by the Alaouite monarchy and permitted by ‘Fortress Europe,’ which uses human lives as geopolitical bargaining chips,” reads the manifesto.
The EL attributes the massive entry of more than 70,000 people in 24 hours to a deliberate action by Moroccan authorities, who, it denounces, “stopped acting as a border” following Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s visit to Algeria days earlier.
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For the European left-wing parties, Morocco uses control of migratory flows to exert pressure on Spain and the EU, and considers that what happened demonstrates Rabat’s “absolute contempt” for the human rights of its own citizens. In the manifesto, the EL also holds the EU responsible for the situation, due to its border externalization policy, and demands the adoption of a migration policy “based on solidarity and social justice.”
In the view of the European left-wing parties, the EU is equally responsible for the treatment given to migrants by funding third countries to prevent their entry into EU territory.
Additionally, it questions the “double standard” of American President Donald Trump’s Administration, which it accuses of praising Morocco as a “pillar of stability,” while ignoring, according to the manifesto, its actions in Western Sahara, territory occupied by Morocco.It also classifies as “political cynicism” the criticism from the U.S. State Department directed at Spain, for considering that the country encourages irregular immigration.
The EL also supports the request made to the United Nations for an investigation into Morocco’s possible responsibility in the crisis and the deaths that occurred at the Ceuta border. This mass entry led to the recovery of 82 bodies along the coast of Ceuta, while Morocco officially acknowledges 11 fatalities on its territory.
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The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), however, raised to 141 the number of deaths in the recent migratory avalanches recorded at Morocco’s borders with the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Additionally, the EL demands an end to the externalization of European borders and rejects the idea that the response to the crisis should involve the widespread use of repatriations.
