Recently Spain accused morocco of “blackmail” over the Ceuta migrant surge and issues between Morocco and Spain is increasing as every day passes and could result in a diplomatic crisis between both countries. This issue caught headlines when 8000 people started migrating towards Ceuta.
where is Ceuta?
Ceuta is a coastal city in North Africa that belongs to Spain which also shares a border with morocco. Ceuta has become a flashpoint for migrants from Morocco seeking to enter Europe. Last year around 2200 seek shelter in Ceuta. Ceuta has a population of 85000 and is connected to mainland Spain through ferry services.
How it all started?
Brahim Ghali
When Morocco captured a huge land of western Sahara after a war in 1975 that made its neighbours mainly Algeria, Libya angry and they showed protest against morocco over this invasion. Since then there has been a conflict, neighbouring countries raised a libration group in western Sahara aimed to make Sahara independent from morocco and because of this morocco government is facing difficulty in administering Western Sahara.
The main reason for recent friction between both countries is Western Sahara. What happened is that the leader of the Polisario Front ( liberation group in western Sahara), Brahim Ghali was admitted to a hospital in Spain for his treatment of covid, which made morocco very angry because Brahim Ghali is the reason behind instability in western Sahara and also the one who is leading a libration group in Sahara.
Morocco expressed its anger by threatening Spain of consequences if Spain let Brahim Ghali get treatment in a hospital in Spain. For which Spain replied that “we support you on western Sahara issue but we cannot deny treatment to Brahim Ghali”. When Spain didn’t listen to the government of morocco then morocco decided to open its borders and allow the migrants who want to leave morocco, to seek refuge in Europe. The main strategy of morocco was to let a huge number of people enter Spain through Ceuta and create a refugee crisis in Spain.
It can be said that one man Brahim Ghali, unknowingly, has created a refugee crisis between morocco and spain.
Stance of Spain
Spain has accused morocco of wanting to create a refugee crisis in their country and also blamed them for wanting to collapse the economy of Spain. Spain is not ready to take such a huge number of migrants into their country but has offered some of the migrant’s shelters. European Union has also expressed its concern regarding this crisis and also said it’s not possible to absorb such a huge amount of migrants in this time of the pandemic. Spain has also threatened morocco with military action if they continued to send migrants in huge numbers.
condition of migrants
Now because of the tension between the two countries, poor migrants who only want a place to live are being used as pawns for blaming each other by the two countries neither of them is willing to take them in. These migrants do not have a place to sleep and food to eat. This situation is the worst example of the condition of refugees of the whole world.
This whole crisis can end if both the countries show a little humanity for the migrants and handle this situation maturely.
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