Tens of thousands storm European border: Morocco blames social media
Morocco rejects accusations of orchestrating the migration crisis, claiming that misleading information on social media triggered the influx of tens of thousands of people into Ceuta. Most migrants have been returned, but the dispute over the scale of the disaster continues.
After being accused of orchestrating the influx of infiltrators into a Spanish enclave, Morocco is blaming social media and the "malicious exploitation of digital platforms" for the mass migration wave that swept through Ceuta last week. According to a report by the American network CBS, most of the migrants have already been returned to their country by Spanish authorities following the sudden and deadly rush toward the border.
Moroccan Interior Ministry spokesman Rachid El-Khalfi stated that the influx of tens of thousands of migrants into the small Spanish city on the Mediterranean coast "is not the result of accidental or spontaneous circumstances." According to him, it is a combination of several factors, primarily the dissemination of misleading information, the activity of human trafficking networks, and the misinterpretation of legal information intended to create the illusion that it is possible to enter European territory easily and without legal consequences.
Moroccan migrants told CBS that they were exposed to posts on social media declaring that "Spain is an open door," accompanied by videos of young people swimming from Morocco to Ceuta. On the other hand, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pointed the finger at "human trafficking mafias," which he said exploited a recent ruling by the Supreme Court in Spain that makes it difficult to deport migrants arriving from Morocco by sea.
Meanwhile, a war of versions is underway regarding the scale of the disaster. While Morocco claims that about 40,000 people made their way to Ceuta and another 1,135 to Melilla, estimates in Spain point to between 50,000 and 60,000 infiltrators. The gaps are even more prominent in the number of deaths: authorities in Spain reported that at least 72 people perished, having drowned or been trampled to death during the panic at the border. The Moroccan Interior Ministry claims, conversely, that the number of deaths is only 11.
The chaotic images from the shores of Ceuta, which constitutes one of the only land borders of the European Union with Africa, caused a storm on the continent. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called on the European Union to suspend the Schengen Agreement with Spain, while French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez ordered the "immediate" reinforcement of controls on the French-Spanish border.
The crisis also sparked a wave of anti-migration protests within Ceuta, to which far-right politicians from Spain arrived, calling the event an "invasion." At the same time, the crisis was exploited to spread conspiracy theories on the networks, when various parties baselessly accused Israel of "engineering" the migration. The vast majority of the infiltrators have already been returned to Morocco, and the Spanish authorities announced that they intend to build additional fences to prevent a recurrence of a similar crisis.
