This Monday, the Moroccan Mission to the European Union and NATO sent a selective letter to several MEPs conveying Rabat’s position on the Ceuta migration crisis. The arrival of said document comes just one day before the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France) addressed the entry of 80,000 migrants to the autonomous city on July 30 and 31.
As Europa Press has been able to verify, only the MEPs of PSOE, PNV and ERC received the email sent by the Moroccan diplomatic representation, while it did not reach members of the delegations of PP, Vox, Sumar, Compromís, Podemos or BNG. The rest of the groups consulted by this agency had not responded at the time of publication of this information.
What is Rabat’s position?
In the letter, Morocco sets out its position regarding the resolution on Ceuta that will be voted on Thursday, ensuring that it has committed to readmit “all affected people, including Moroccan nationals, unaccompanied minors and third-country nationals” who entered the city at the end of July.
Morocco maintains that its authorities are working to clarify “the causes and actors” behind what happened in Ceuta and expressly points out “the manifest role played by disinformation spread through social networks,” and “the manipulation of vulnerable people by migrant smuggling and trafficking networks.”
It also echoes the statements of the Government of Spain in which it recognizes “the rapid and active cooperation of Morocco to facilitate the return of the vast majority of migrants in an irregular situation.”
“What interest does Morocco have in provoking a crisis with Spain?”
The letter also contemplates two questions from Rabat, such as “what interest” would Morocco have in “generating a major crisis with Spain and the European Union”, particularly at a time when “the EU is Morocco’s first partner” and when bilateral relations “are experiencing greater strengthening and consolidation.”
“Would Morocco have deliberately caused a migration crisis on the day of the Kingdom’s national celebration, the Feast of the Throne, a highly symbolic date on which Morocco celebrates the Kingdom’s achievements?” Rabat questions in his letter.
In this sense, the Moroccan mission in Brussels maintains that the management of “the sudden arrival of several tens of thousands of people” in a “very short period of time”, many of them determined to cross the Mediterranean risking their lives, “cannot be addressed through the use of lethal force.”
“However, for Morocco, the use of such force cannot be considered either as a means or as a solution, in accordance with the rules of action applicable to the management of migratory flows,” explain the Rabat diplomats.
Morocco has also stressed the systematic compliance with “its commitments to Spain and the European Union”, in “close cooperation with its European partners”, which according to Frontex data prevent the irregular entry of 75,000 people each year into Spain, a total of 227,000 frustrated attempts between 2023 and 2025.
