Spain has found no evidence to conclude that July’s deadly border rush from Morocco into its enclave of Ceuta was orchestrated or carried out by Moroccan authorities, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told lawmakers on Thursday.
Sanchez’s comments in the lower house of parliament followed a police report that emerged this week saying that the mass entry into Ceuta was not a spontaneous migration event but a planned and phased operation designed to overwhelm border controls.
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“I can assure you that no institution – not the diplomatic service, nor the European Commission, nor any international body – has provided the Spanish government with any solid evidence that Morocco planned or carried out the incident. None whatsoever,” Sanchez said.
However, he said Morocco’s Gendarmerie police did allow crossings to occur during a key 10-hour period on July 30, when migrant arrivals peaked. Spanish authorities had yet to determine whether this was due to inaction or inability to contain the influx, Sanchez added.
The police report, seen by Reuters, alleged that Moroccan security forces were initially deployed in smaller numbers than usual near the Tarajal breakwater separating the enclave from the North African country and did not make a serious attempt to disperse the crowds.
Some uniformed Moroccan officers gave directions towards the crossing point, while other unidentified people appeared to guide or monitor the flow of people, the report said, but it did not identify individual officers or provide independently verified evidence of orders from Moroccan authorities.
Moroccan officials have denied enabling the crossing.
Sanchez says Spanish king should visit Ceuta
The Spanish government has also urged King Felipe VI to visit Spain’s diplomatically sensitive territories of Ceuta and Melilla “in the coming weeks”, Sanchez added.
The last visit by a Spanish monarch to the cities in 2007 sparked a crisis with neighbouring Morocco, which claims both territories and maintains delicate relations with Madrid.
In crisis since July’s migrant rush from Morocco, “Ceuta needs to be supported by the state more than ever,” Sanchez told parliament.
“For that very reason, the government has expressed the need that, after 20 years without a visit by a head of state to Ceuta and Melilla, the head of state visits these two Spanish cities in the coming weeks.”
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
This story originally appeared on France24
