Morocco declared on 22 August that it was ready to send buses to the border with Ceuta and collect its underage citizens. At least 2,000 unaccompanied Moroccan minors are expected to be present in the city. For Europe, it is simply a test: whether a state border means anything more erstwhile migration laws block decisions.
The discount says the buses are ready.
Moroccan Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi declared that Rabat is ready to send buses to the border with Ceuta and collect Moroccan minors residing in the Spanish enclave. How the local portal reports El Faro de Ceuta, Minister spoke about cooperation with Spain and the return of children to Morocco after their identity, household situation and conditions for return.
It's an crucial distinction. It's about kids and teenagers, not people who are allowed to be treated like pawns in a political game. But that is why the state must act clearly. erstwhile unaccompanied minors are stuck on the another side of the border, work falls on governments that have tolerated chaos for years and left the service a problem without tools.
According to Spanish media, there may be at least 2,000 Moroccan minors in Ceuta. El Español states that any of them declare their willingness to stay in Spain and apply for asylum. This shows a real conflict between the will of the country of origin, Spanish law and migration pressure, which does not vanish from the call for humanitarianism itself.
Madrid carries weight to the continent
The government in Madrid had previously announced the transfer of 500 children from Ceuta to the continental part of Spain. The Guardian he described this as a return after erstwhile declarations that those who entered the enclave illegally would be sent back in cooperation with Morocco. In practice, a political node has been created: the local authorities of Ceuta want to relieve the city, part of the Spanish regions do not want to take care of it, and Morocco demands the return of its citizens.
The background is fresh. After the crisis of late July DN described how Spain strengthened the border in Ceuta and how the enclave became a point of force for the full country. Ceuta and Melilla are not a geographical curiosity. This is the external frontier of the European Union, where idealistic slogans collide with fences, patrols, papers and work for circumstantial decisions.
The European Commission, according to Guardian's report, indicated that, in the light of EU rules, irregular migrants in Ceuta should be sent back to Morocco, including unaccompanied minors. However, Spain complies with its own rules on the protection of children. And that's where the problem is: the strategy that was expected to order migration frequently produces conflicting signals.
Ceuta as a informing to Europe
He's been under force for weeks. Morocco stopped hundreds of people trying to get to the enclave, and DN besides wrote about mafias charged up to EUR 9,000 for the migration. Where the state loses control of traffic across the border, a criminal middleman appears very quickly. He earns from human desperation and the weakness of the institution.
Poland should look at this dispute without illusion. It's not about moving the Spanish problem 1 to 1 over the Vistula. It's about the mechanism. First politicians have weakened the importance of the border over the years, then they talk about exceptions and procedures, and then the citizen hears that the state cannot do what it promised.
There is simply a clear rule in the national interest: protecting children and human dignity must go with border control. Humanitarianism without a state ends in chaos. A country without sensitivity loses its moral back. Europe needs both, but in this order, which does not disarm sovereignty.
The welfare of the kid will not replace state policy
Morocco present says it wants its underage citizens back. Spain shall comply with the procedures and protection of minors. Both parties have obligations that cannot be blamed on Ceuta alone or on NGOs. The family, citizenship, work of the country of origin and the law of the host State must not be treated as an obstacle to the open borders draft.
The Ceuta case shows that migration is not an abstract subject of the Brussels conference. These are circumstantial children on the streets, circumstantial residents of the enclave, circumstantial costs and a circumstantial border. If Europe cannot tell who has the right to enter and who should return, it gives the decision back to street pressures, smugglers and political facts.
Source: RMF24, El Faro de Ceuta, El Español, The Guardian, Euronews.
Source: RMF24
