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Rabat – Despite claims that Spain wants to calm tensions with Morocco, some officials continue to promote hostile remarks against the North African country, dismissing or downplaying its efforts in helping Spain effectively implement its border security and migration management goals over the years.
Morocco has been repeatedly instrumental in cutting by half the number of successful Spain-bound irregular migration attempts. Listening to many in the Spanish political and media establishment, however, Morocco has been but a problematic neighbor and a serial weaponizer of migration to “blackmail” Spain.
Margarita Robles, Spain’s Minister of Defense has repeated hostile remarks against Morocco, accusing it of using “minors as an instrument to circumvent territorial borders.”
The Spanish official made her latest remarks this week while celebrating her country’s Armed Forces Day. Obviously referring to Morocco and the recent migration crisis in Ceuta, Robles said a country “in a good neighborly code” must not “take advantage of minors.”
Doing so is against international and humanitarian law, she insisted, again suggesting that Morocco is no stranger to defying international conventions.
Earlier in May, over 8,000 irregular migrants crossed from northern Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
The mass irregular migration caused frustration in the Spanish government, and many senior officials were quick to accuse Morocco of blackmailing Spain into making significant concessions amid growing diplomatic tensions between the two neighbors.
In similar remarks earlier this month, Robles said that her country will not surrender to Moroccan “blackmail.” She argued, “The integrity of Spain is not negotiable or at stake and we are going to use all necessary means to guarantee territorial integrity and monitor our borders.”
Read also: Ghali, Ceuta: Spain and Morocco Navigate Fraught but Essential Partnership
Such strong language comes as tensions flare between Madrid and Rabat after Spain’s government decided to host Polisario chief Brahim Ghali, claiming it did so for “humanitarian reasons” and ignoring all the criminal charges that had long been facing the separatist leader at Spanish courts.
Spain allowed Ghali to enter its territories, using a fake identity and passport under the name of “Mohamed Ben Battouche.”
Ghali was granted access to Madrid after he tested positive for COVID-19. But Morocco was especially incensed by the fact that the Spanish government did not consult or notify Rabat despite the sensitivity of the topic.
In recent weeks, Spain has faced popular backlash for sheltering Ghali in spite of his association with several first-degree crimes, including genocide, illegal detention, kidnapping, and rape.
More still, the diplomatic feud between Morocco and Spain appeared to take another turn when Spain used the military to heavy-handedly disperse – and mistreat – migrants in Ceuta.
Some videos show Spanish troops and border police using sticks to beat migrants and push them to the sea to “go back home.”
Human rights activists have condemned Spain’s use of collective deportation of the migrants without individual assessments.
Catherine Woollar, the Secretary-General of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, told Al Jazeera that a situation where people are “collectively expelled without individual assessment is a situation that is illegal under EU and international law.”
She said that a country is expected to respect good reception of migrants, providing them with individual assessment.
Ruth Ferrero, a lecturer in political science and senior researcher at Complutense University of Madrid, agrees with Woollar.
She condemned the situation, stressing that the way in which Spanish authorities behaved constitutes a blatant violation of international law. Unaccompanied minors should not be “deported at all,” she noted.Although deportation of minors is illegal in Spain, the Spanish government used the military to push back migrants to return to Moroccoby foot.
The Spanish military also lined up near the shore, preventing migrants from entering Ceuta upon their arrival.
In January, the European Court of Justice ruled that unaccompanied minors should only be sent home if there “were adequate reception facilities.”
