Ceuta Government Pleads for Madrid’s Help Amid Moroccan Pressure

The situation prevailing in Ceuta is alarming. For the local Executive, it is a matter of "urgency" and Ceuta is at a "point of no return". According to the local government, Morocco is suffocating Ceuta. The "extreme gravity" situation that the city has been experiencing for "four months" was at the center of the concerns, on Friday, during the meeting of the Council of Governors, indicates El Foro de Ceuta.

Denouncing "a real attempt by Morocco to stifle local trade, while there is an increase in irregular immigration of Moroccan citizens, adults and minors", the executive of Juan Vivas, who says it is suffering from "abandonment" by the central state, has requested from the latter, "a determined, energetic and immediate action to defend the sovereignty and identity of Ceuta".

"Today, we know that the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent a circular to its senior officials, prohibiting entry into Ceuta". They have closed Tarajal and claimed the territorial waters of the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, said the spokesman for the local government, Carlos Rontomé, adding that this is a clear attitude of "direct aggression, economic asphyxiation". According to him, it is a "matter of state", since every year Morocco declares that "Ceuta and Melilla are cities occupied by Spain".

Moreover, "Spain removes the barbed wire, but the EU, at the request of our country, finances it in Morocco, in exchange for the control of sub-Saharan migration. But the problem we have in Ceuta are the Moroccans", regretted the spokesman. However, according to him, "there is no control at the border", because, he notes, "we have a dismantled border through which adults and minors enter".