We are not facing a humanitarian crisis. We are facing a political onslaught with which Morocco once again tests Spain. The human drama exists, and the responsibility lies with a regime that turns irregular immigration into a pressure tool. In 2021 Rabat opened the Ceuta border as retaliation for hosting the leader of the Polisario Front. Five years later it has allowed this tide of thousands of young people – many already returned after that festive and dangerous excursion – to obtain a new counterpart.
Morocco also does not recognize Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, which it considers territories pending decolonization. Each migratory avalanche therefore constitutes a direct challenge to Spanish sovereignty.
However, the Government’s reaction has once again been disconcerting. It has not urgently summoned the Moroccan ambassador to demand explanations. Instead, it has preferred to lash out at Italy for threatening to suspend the Schengen area. It is a striking reversal of priorities: tougher on a European partner than on a blackmailing enemy always on the lookout.
The problem is that we continue to analyze this situation with humanitarian categories while Rabat acts with a logic of power. The Moroccan regime cares about its strategic objectives as a regional power, not the lives of those it uses as a pressure tool. The suffering of its nationals is not a limit for a regime that continues to treat them as subjects.
The response requires the deployment of more police and, if necessary, military. But also the urgent amendment of the Immigration Law to reverse a Supreme Court ruling that has acted as a trigger for the “call effect” through social networks in Morocco.
Spain must abandon the soft approach once and for all. Defending the borders is no longer just a migratory issue; it is a matter of national security. Those who repeatedly use migratory pressure to erode the sovereignty of another State do not act as an uncomfortable partner, but as an enemy. We must respond firmly to Morocco’s hybrid war and combat drug trafficking operating from the other side of the Strait with all the State’s instruments.
Nations that give up defending their borders end up putting their sovereignty at risk. Morocco knows this. Spain should have learned it too.