Morocco Using Migrants as a Weapon

‘Weaponization of migration’ is what Blanca Garcés Mascareñas, senior research fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), calls the migration crisis in the Spanish exclave on the African coast of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Morocco used it as a weapon to show what would happen if the Spanish government did not count on its cooperation in migratory matters. The Moroccan authorities acted similarly back in 2021 when Brahim Ghali, general secretary of the Polisario Front, was accepted in Spain for hospitalization. ‘Morocco takes note, and with all the consequences’ – this was the response of the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A week later, starting from 17 and 18 May 2021, more than 8,000 people (a third of them minors) crossed the border into Ceuta. Brahim Ghali had to move to Algeria.

In 2020, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the EU that it would ‘pay the price’ for not increasing its financial aid and not supporting Turkish military operations in northern Syria. Days later 13,000 people attempted to cross the Greek-Turkish border.

In the case of Ceuta there is no doubt that the Moroccan State is acting with clearly coercive intentions: it wanted to show what would happen if the Spanish government declined to cooperate in migratory matters. The message is clear: if Spain does not want a migratory crisis of such dimensions, it has to give in to their demands. And although they are demanding more money, this is not their only goal. They are asking, like Erdogan, for political connivance on certain internal issues.

For such actions to have coercive power, a great staging is essential. We are facing a theatricalization of chaos. The migrants have been let through and are being let back in. This is a ‘simple’ reminder. The theatrics of the chaos in Ceuta are meant to remind Madrid of what could happen if it does not end up giving in to Rabat's demands. Migration is being used as a weapon of political warfare. This requires a theatricalization of chaos and thousands of bodies ready to jump across at any moment.

To this reasoning by the author we should add that the crisis was not exhausted as the migrants returned to Morocco. Mayor-President of Ceuta Juan Jesús Vivas has announced that 8 to 11 thousand irregular migrants could be staying in the city until now.

The illegal border crossers are not only migrants in transit. They are also and above all Moroccan citizens, mostly young people, who have been dreaming of leaving for years. It is this present without a future that makes them easy prey.

The European Union and its member States do not hesitate to respond in kind: in Greece, with the brutal action of the army at the border and the almost automatic suspension of the right to asylum; in Spain, with a discourse by the central government purely focused on the restoration of security and the defense of the border, to the point of deploying the army in the streets.

All this without realizing a fundamental issue: at the external borders of the European Union, the use of migration as a political weapon is the direct consequence of our own externalization policies, the author says. By forcing neighboring States to control the borders for us, we have automatically put ourselves in their hands. We offered them incentives in return, from development aid funds to possible trade or visa agreements.

Now it is they who want to set the terms – after realizing our dependence on them. Having little choice, dependency has made us prisoners. The European Union States may be prone to external pressures. Moreover, as in the case of Ceuta, this could cause a crisis among European countries wishing to protect their borders from migrants who entered the EU illegally.

Original publication: https://www.cidob.org/en/publications/ceuta-weaponisation-migration