Spain’s PM Sanchez says no evidence Morocco orchestrated Ceuta border surge

MADRID, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Spain has found no evidence to conclude that July’s deadly border rush from Morocco into its enclave of Ceuta was orchestrated by Moroccan authorities, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday, countering allegations in a Spanish police report.

Speaking in parliament, Sanchez responded to claims in the report that emerged this week suggesting the entry of over 70,000 people into Ceuta was not a spontaneous migration but a planned effort to overwhelm  border controls.

“I can assure you that no institution – not the diplomatic service, nor the European Commission, nor any international body – has provided the Spanish government with any solid evidence that Morocco planned or carried out the incident. None whatsoever,” Sanchez said. 

However, Moroccan police did allow crossings to occur during a key 10-hour period on July 30, when migrant arrivals peaked, he said. Spanish authorities had yet to determine whether this was due to inaction or inability to contain the influx, Sanchez added.

Sanchez has repeatedly defended Morocco during the crisis, highlighting Rabat’s cooperation in returning the majority of the migrants in the days following the surge.

But on Thursday he said Spain summoned Morocco’s ambassador on August 21 because of “unacceptable statements” made by two Moroccan ministers over Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other North African enclave. Morocco’s Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi last month publicly reiterated Rabat’s sovereignty claims over the cities.

FEWER MOROCCAN POLICE THAN USUAL AT BORDER

The police report, commissioned by a High Court judge last month and seen by Reuters, alleged that Moroccan security forces were initially deployed in smaller numbers than usual near the border breakwater and did not make a serious attempt to disperse the crowds.   

Some uniformed Moroccan officers gave directions towards the crossing point, while other unidentified people appeared to guide or monitor the flow of people, the report said. It did not identify individual officers or provide independently verified evidence of orders from Moroccan authorities.

It cited some migrants as saying in interviews they had received guidance from Moroccan security forces to make the crossing.

“The police response in Morocco to the mobilisation and mass influx of migrants into Ceuta has been, to say the least, one of total permissiveness, with no serious attempt recorded to reduce, disperse or remove the crowd from the border perimeter,” the report said.

Moroccan authorities did not respond to a Reuters request for comment but previously denied any permissiveness, blaming the crossing on traffickers, the misinterpretation of a Spanish court ruling that appeared to open a legal loophole for arrivals by sea and the use of social media to disseminate information about a mass crossing.

Justice Minister Ouahbi told Al Arabiya TV on August 22 that Moroccan authorities did not attempt to stop people marching toward Ceuta in order to avoid bloodshed, but they handled the crisis “wisely and with sang-froid”.

The police report said trafficking groups in Morocco could mobilise a maximum of about 300 migrants a day, lacking the capacity to orchestrate an event of those dimensions.

(Reporting by David Latona and Benjamín Mejías Valencia; additional reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Alexandra Hudson)