Morocco authorities arrest hundreds of migrants trying to reach Spain – JURIST

Security forces in Morocco prevented nearly 300 “irregular migrants” from crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, and arrested hundreds of other would-be migrants in the city of Fnideq, northern Morocco, on Saturday, according to local media. The actions occurred amid a persistent migration crisis in the region.

According to a Moroccan security source, authorities launched field operations and security force interventions early Saturday morning that led to the arrest of 248 migrants from sub-Saharan African countries alongside 46 Moroccan nationals. Additionally, authorities carried out preemptive measures, including online monitoring, which allowed security forces to arrest 61 people suspected of inciting irregular migration and promoting calls for collective attempts to cross borders via social media platforms.

Local media have previously reported that social media and misinformation have amplified undocumented migration by promoting the spread of posts facilitating coordination, providing operational details through route maps and vessel-tracking screenshots, and by sharing footage of people moving freely in Ceuta. For this reason, security forces asserted that online monitoring operations would continue in parallel with field interventions in order to identify all those involved in digital incitement to mass migration and in organizing irregular migration.

The security source also noted that the heavy deployment of security forces around Ceuta and Melilla has prevented mass incursion, stressing that the security situation at the border crossings remains under control, with the continued deployment of security forces on both sides of the border to prevent any new crossings.

This heightened security presence on the border follows late July’s mass border crossing at Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, where 60,000 people attempted to cross into the territory by swimming from nearby towns or climbing border fences. Authorities attributed the surge in border crossings to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling stating that migrants could be immediately pushed back only if they had crossed a physical barrier, excluding those who entered the enclave by swimming.

Spanish authorities announced on Monday the establishment of a new temporary camp for migrants who entered Ceuta, amid growing local anti-migrant campaigns. Similar mass crossings into Ceuta and Melilla have previously occurred on multiple occasions, but the most striking incident was the crisis of May 30, 2021, when 9,000 migrants illegally crossed the border to reach Ceuta.