Lost in the furious response from EU leaders accusing Spain of gross negligence by allowing the storming of the EU border in Ceuta last Thursday (30 July), a Spanish enclave on the African continent next to Morocco, is the damage that this could do to EU relations with Rabat.
Though Spain is facing most of the anger from EU members for the mass border crossing, Morocco’s own standing with the EU has been badly damaged.
The crossing is the most serious crisis at the Spanish enclaves on the African continent since 2021. An estimated 60,000 migrants crossed into Spanish territory, a process that left a death toll of more than 70 on Monday (3 August).
The 2021 crisis was deliberately caused by Morocco opening the border at Ceuta – a retaliation against Spain after Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front, the political arm of the Sahrawi independence movement, travelled to Spain in an Algerian jet on an Algerian diplomatic passport to be treated for coronavirus.
Five years on, Morocco has positioned itself as the EU’s most “key and trusted” ally on trade, counter-terrorism and migration control and it is hard to see why they would jeopardise this.
