The Contentious Administrative Court number 2 of Ceuta considers that the method of hot return – which is currently applied to Moroccan citizens who enter the city illegally – cannot be used in the case of migrants who arrive by swimming in the autonomous cities. A ruling of last September 4 to which elDiario.es had access clearly states that repatriation can only be carried out immediately when the person concerned tries to circumvent “fences, walls or barriers”, that is, “in the border perimeter or its surroundings.” There is an appeal against the judge’s decision and, until it is final, the Civil Guard plans to maintain immediate deliveries to Morocco.
In addition to the aforementioned judgment, dated just two weeks ago, another one from January signed by the same judge, Antonio Severo Castro, already examined this issue. However, in this case, the resolution focuses on the fact that the applicant was not subject to the mandatory administrative return procedure. All this despite his interception in Sarchal in the company of seven other migrants, including two Moroccan adults with whom the procedures were followed.
The judge’s position is much clearer in the recent judgment of 4 September, which refers to the immediate return of a person who was arrested on 14 November 2023 while trying to swim to the land of Ceuta via the South Bay. The judge considers that the “rejection at the border” provided for in the Organic Law for so-called “barrier jumping” situations and, therefore, its objective is to “immediately restore the legality transgressed by the attempt of foreigners to irregularly cross this specific land border”.
This decision comes in a complex context of strong migratory pressure on the other side of the Ceuta border. There, in the city of Castillejos, many groups of people of diverse origins – from sub-Saharan countries, Algeria, but also from the Alawite kingdom itself – have been trying to cross the border into Spain since Sunday, following an appeal on social networks. For the moment, the Moroccan police have managed to repel all attempts, generating a pitched battle with hundreds of detainees. At the same time, a reinforced Civil Guard force continues to be deployed in Tarajal to deal with any eventuality, without having to intervene, for the moment.
NGOs celebrate convictions, but Civil Guard will continue to return
The decision of the Ceuta court puts the current policy of hot returns – in both autonomous cities – in check, given the two resources mentioned above. However, as official sources of the Civil Guard confirm to this media, the current system – which, in Ceuta and Melilla, immediately rejects all Moroccan citizens of legal age intercepted attempting the irregular pass – will remain in force “until the resolution is firm.”
For their part, the three associations that represented the people affected in both cases, Coordinadora de Barrios, No Name Kitchen and the Jesuit Migrant Service, celebrated the judgment of the Contentieux, recalling that “border control is a responsibility of the State” and that it must be exercised with full respect for human rights.
In this sense, Javier Baeza, president of the Neighborhood Coordinator, stressed his concern that practices aimed at “restricting the rights of migrants” are becoming “increasingly frequent.” “This decision is a fundamental step in the fight for human rights,” added Francesca Fusaro, from No Name Kitchen, who accuses the authorities of “endangering the lives of thousands of people at sea.”
Strong migratory pressure: the City sees it as “maliciousness”
This Tuesday, another actor joins the committee on the immigration issue, the Local Administration, particularly concerned by the overcrowding of its guardianship spaces for minors and the calls for mass transfer attempts via social networks.
Although the tension at the border has remained on the Moroccan side, the attempts to cross have begun to disturb the spokesman for the government of the Autonomous City of Ceuta, Alejandro Ramírez, who assured this Tuesday morning that the call launched on social networks “is not spontaneous”, but rather responds to a “certain malicious intention”.
Although he described as “quite energetic” the response of Morocco and the Spanish state security forces to the attempts to cross the border perimeter, Ramírez considers “that what is happening in the end is an attempt to generate a climate in this area” of tension, of confrontation, of seeking to disturb order.
He does not know, he admitted, who is behind the videos and messages that, through social networks, invite Moroccans – especially the youngest – to try to reach Spanish soil, but he trusts in the intelligence services of both countries to elucidate this question.
Regarding the possibility of a new movement of people willing to cross the border illegally, supposedly planned for the 30th of this month, the spokesman for the Government of Ceuta hopes that the security deployment will be, at least, “similar” to that of the last 15th, when hundreds of Maghrebis and sub-Saharans were confined before managing to enter the perimeter.
Meanwhile, the issue of minors and their relocation to other communities remains on the table. The Executive has admitted that it has the rope around its neck due to the oversaturation of its reception centers, in which young people have increased their reception capacity fivefold, which “endangers the financial viability” of the City.
The administration has set the end of this month as a deadline to be able to maintain its attention in optimal conditions; Today, less than two weeks from this deadline and without a clear economic plan to reorient the situation – among the options considered are a reorganization of resources or a credit file – the inhabitants of Ceuta can only hope that the central government responds to their request for aid. “We are convinced that it will respond not only from a budgetary point of view, but also by interceding with the communities to proceed with a distribution,” he said.
