The Ceutan Ramón Caudevila has been the longest-serving Head of Immigration in Spain, from when he took office back in his city in 1994 until his retirement last January, at 65 years old. He has seen it all, and he tells EL MUNDO about it. He is pessimistic. He believes that immigration is “a huge business” for Morocco, and that the Government is “reacting very slowly, much more than in 2021, for reasons only they know.” The first major crisis he experienced was in 2014, and that took place, he says, “because of something very personal of the Moroccan king, which became a huge problem for Spain”.
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- What happened?
- A yacht was passing, with several jet skis behind, through Spanish waters. The Civil Guard went and found out it was the King of Morocco. He was very kind, but the next day the gates of hell opened and everything that floated was heading to Spain. Only sub-Saharan Africans, that is.
- Can something so serious be determined by such a whim?
- Certainly. And the PP was in government, but they don’t care whether it’s PP or PSOE. Well, they took Perejil by force, but they were harshly answered and I don’t think they will try again.
- You have seen it all here for 30 years.
- A little more than 30. I arrived in ’94, and shortly after I moved to what preceded Ucrif [Unit Against Immigration Networks and Document Falsifications, part of the General Immigration Police Station]. In 2020 they made me head of the brigade. Always in what this is: Europe’s frontline in immigration. A tough time, really. This has always been a jungle.
- In recent years…
- …We have not had the Government’s support, to put it mildly. It has been encouraged that those who jump or enter by swimming use asylum. In the 2021 jump, Moroccans did not ask for asylum because they knew it didn’t work. Now they will ask, and they know it might work for them.
- Explain that.
- Now every request goes through an interministerial commission that slows everything down, and when 31 days pass from the request, illegal immigrants have the right to go to the Peninsula, and there you can no longer control them. It’s a trick sponsored by the Government that facilitates covert illegal immigration. The commission meets every 40 days. When it denies asylum, the person is already free in the Peninsula, and good luck catching them. They know this, but do nothing. This is how it works.
- How many of the 10,000 who stayed from this jump will ultimately have the right to asylum?
- Only some sub-Saharan Africans, not many. But the bottleneck the Moroccans will create will be huge. Asylum is a trend they have learned, word of mouth works very well there. And Morocco receives these jumpers, but not the regular ones, those who want to return once they have settled abroad, they don’t want them.
- How?
- They tell you no, that you keep them.
- Why?
- What is Morocco’s biggest income? Remittances from emigrants, what they send. Beyond the shouting, people know little about all this. Do you know how sub-Saharan Africans enter Morocco? Walking? No, by plane. Why do you think?
- No idea.
- Which airline has grown the most in the world? Air Maroc. Who owns it? The king. They could stop sub-Saharan Africans by putting a visa requirement. But they are not interested.
- Because…
- Because immigration, being a transit zone to Europe, is a big business for Morocco and its authorities. They are the gateway. That is worth a lot.
- The economic factor.
- From Europe it is not seen, but it is key. I’ll give you another example. The unaccompanied minors (menas). In 2003 I had a lot of trust with a Moroccan commissioner, we dined and talked, a friendly and professional exchange. At that time minors began to appear in the small boats. I asked him. He said: “It’s very simple. If an adult passes and you detain him, he has invested and lost 6,000 euros. But you won’t return a minor. And when he turns 18 in Spain, he is given residency and a work permit. And he requests family reunification: five people on average.” But it doesn’t end there. His older sister, who is married, also brings her family…
- And it branches out.
- Exponentially. From one minor you legalize in four or five years 25 or 30 people. The best investment for Morocco is a mena. 90% are sent by their own families. The thrown-away mena, the street one, you notice immediately. The others are sent by families. And the adult is the same. As soon as he legalizes, he reunites everyone.
- But behind this being possible there are political decisions.
- All governments talk about ordering immigration. Fine. Well, look how easy. Anyone who jumps to Spain and regularizes, either cannot reunify for 10 years, or quotas are set: 20,000 per year. And those who enter legally can reunify from the start.
- How many enter legally?
- Many. Fruit pickers, workers, for many things… This can be perfectly regulated, but it is not wanted.
- What did you think on July 30, during the boarding?
- Days before, swimmers were seen constantly, all the time, crossing the border. It can be seen from my house, I live on the sixth floor. On July 29 itself, a day before, the Moroccan patrol boat entered Spanish waters and began picking up immigrants and returning them to their side, and the Spanish one too. There were hundreds. Spain must have seen it just as I did, because, I repeat, their patrol boat entered Spanish waters.
- Then it had to be known.
- No one can say it was not known. In the previous week, 1,500 had entered. That the Moroccan patrol boat entered 300 meters from our shore, invading our waters, huh?
- So, why did it happen?
- These are political issues I cannot get into. Social networks are talked about, fine. But who controls the networks? And from the 30th until today, not one has entered. That makes everything clear. In the 2021 jump, a video became very popular, one I made myself at the border: you could see the gendarme opening the gate and letting people in through his door. The Civil Guards defending the border as best they could, and these opening it. Morocco, if allowed to do so…
- And why does this Government tolerate that?
- I must not answer that. But with Perejil the limit was set, and that’s where it stayed. I say it as an example.
- Will this last long?
- I can’t know, but if any of the arrivals get asylum in the end, it will be the sub-Saharan Africans, although now they don’t ask for asylum that much either, because European countries are already starting to return asylum seekers among themselves, and their intention is always to go further north than Spain. Germany, for example, has said it will return asylum seekers to Italy and Greece.
- And doesn’t that violate Schengen?
- No, asylum is parallel to Schengen. Returning them to the country that granted asylum has always existed in the law, but it was not done. Now, with so much immigration…
- Europe has told Spain that these should not pass to the Peninsula.
- Because ministers Albares and Marlaska said so before. They said it, and Europe tells them: “Fine, then comply.” But beware, European regulations do allow returning unaccompanied minors, and realize that many of these are. It has not been done until now. Let’s see if they do it or not.
- And why hasn’t it been done?
- This will seem curious. It hasn’t been done partly because judges here forced, by regulation, to return minors not to Morocco, but to their parents in Morocco. And then Morocco said no, they had to be returned to their authorities. Notice the nuance.
- Are you worried that Ceuta will become a legal limbo where Spain deposits the immigrants it has in excess, a kind of what Albania is for Italy?
- The Moroccans, one way or another, will return to their country, but the sub-Saharan Africans could remain in a limbo, because I have serious doubts that Morocco will accept them back. That they accept them back, I have not seen in all these years. There was about thirty who jumped years ago that they did accept back, but usually they do not. France, for example, punished Morocco for not taking back sub-Saharan Africans, reducing visas by half for Moroccans who wanted to travel to France. But the Moroccans didn’t care.
- As a Ceutan: to what extent can this deteriorate the city?
- I want to think it is temporary. The solution will not be quick. Ceutan women and girls are afraid. In 2021 it was resolved quickly, but now there are no signs, really. There doesn’t seem to be will.
- It is also true that, with so many people on the street, about 10,000 people, without food or with very little… Things are not happening, there are no major crime problems. Do you see it that way?
- Let time pass. All those who jumped came with some money. When they run out, and they can’t buy their loaf of bread and recharge their phones… That’s when we’ll see. They will have to survive, and survival… It is true that in this jump there were quite a few middle-class people, almost upper-middle class. Some in apartments, even. Those are the first who have returned. You still see some, but what remains is already lower middle and very low class. They will bring problems. They are the most desperate.
- And why is the Government reacting so slowly?
- The Army could have set everything up very quickly, in hours, and they are taking days… The reaction has been very late, and things are being done late.
- Why?
- I think it is deliberate: they expect them to keep returning on their own and that the problem will dilute more by itself. And I think they are wrong, because those who have not returned will not return. And the 10,000 who are here, are here.
