The Spanish government is defending its policy of immediate returns of migrants at the Ceuta border with Morocco. Spain is facing a 125 percent increase in migrants since the start of this year.
Spain's socialist government is defending its hardline stance against violent immigration, following the deportation to Morocco of 116 migrants who entered the Spanish enclave of Ceuta by force last week. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, a former judge, said that quick expulsions will continue. "Cooperation between Spain and Morocco aims at the fight against human trafficking organisations," he said. "We wanted to send a message to the mafias: orderly, safe, and legal immigration is possible - not illegal and violent immigration, which brings a security threat," he said in a hearing before the Interior Committee in Parliament, cited on Thursday by Spanish media. In so doing, Grande-Marlaska defended the Sanchez government's migratory policy based on "safety and humanity".
"But humanity is not the same as permissiveness," he said, denying a chain reaction produced by the reception in June in Valencia of the ship Aquarius for humanitarian reasons. Italy and Malta had denied the ship a port of disembarkation. Following that disembarkation, the Spanish government changed the orientation of its migratory policy.
Expulsions not considered "hot returns"
Grande-Marlaska requested to speak before the Lower House, and in his speech he confirmed that to send back the 116 sub-Saharan migrants who crossed into Ceuta on August 22, he made use of a bilateral readmission accord that was signed with Morocco in 1992 and has almost never been applied since then. He said the assault on the border was made in "an organised way, using clubs, pruning shears, rocks, and sticks, exhibiting molotov cocktails and flame throwers, throwing bottles with quicklime, excrement and urine". He denied that the deportations, which were carried out by Spanish authorities within 24 hours, were so-called "hot returns", also known as "devoluciones en caliente". Those immediate returns have been denounced by NGOs, and Spain has been sentenced for them in the past by the European Court of Human Rights. In this case, however, the migrants were individually assisted by a team of three interpreters and 12 attorneys, and the minister said none of them requested international protection or asylum.
On this same line, Grande-Marlaska also justified the arrest at Ceuta's temporary reception centre of 10 migrants suspected to have instigated the violent assault by more than 600 migrants at the enclave's border on July 26. The preliminary hearing judge on Wednesday confirmed custody in prison for two of the suspects, who are charged with belonging to a criminal organisation, attacks on authorities and damages. The minister also reaffirmed the government's intention to equip the borders of Ceuta and Melilla with "more modern methods" than the current controversial "concertinas", the razor wire currently used as a deterrent at the border fences, including on the Moroccan side.
Migrant arrivals to Spain up 125%
Grande-Marlaska acknowledged that the western Mediterranean route across the Strait of Gilbraltar has seen a 125% increase in migrants since January. There have been 31,800 irregular arrivals by sea or land in Spain through August 24, about 17,000 more than the same period last year. He said it is an "extraordinary but predictable situation, because migrant flows had already increased by 170% in 2017". He said the increase is partly due to the fact that migrants are having difficulty on the other two routes used to enter Europe, the central route through Libya to Italy, and the Balkan route through Turkey to Greece.
The Spanish government is calling on the EU for additional funding to face the migrant crisis, asking for 130 million euros from the Africa trust fund. It is also asking for bilateral agreements with countries such as Algeria, Senegal, and Mauritania for repatriation of their citizens.Grande-Marlaska travelled to Senegal on Thursday, where the Spanish Civil Guard has had a permanent delegation since the cayucos crisis in 2006.