Morocco Expels Spanish Journalists Covering Ceuta Border Crisis

Castillejos, Morocco, Aug 15 (EFE).- Moroccan authorities on Saturday ordered media workers from EFE and Spanish public broadcaster TVE to leave Fnideq, Castillejos, where they were covering the situation at the border with the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

The hotels where the journalists were staying told them they had received orders from local authorities to leave immediately.

Earlier, a representative of Morocco’s Interior Ministry had ordered EFE and TVE journalists to leave the town, without explaining the reason for the decision.

The official said only that he was “following instructions” and warned the journalists that their professional credentials and equipment could be confiscated if they did not leave Fnideq.

EFE contacted Morocco’s Interior Ministry but had not received a response.

The director of communications at the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication told the agency that he was trying to clarify the situation.

Morocco’s second public television channel, 2M, meanwhile, said Spanish authorities had restricted the entry of one of its camera crews into Ceuta earlier this month, following a mass attempted crossing that brought more than 70,000 people to the Spanish city and left at least 141 dead, according to humanitarian organizations.

The EFE and TVE teams had been in Fnideq to cover the situation at the border with Ceuta following calls on social media for a mass crossing on Saturday.

In a latest turns of events, hundreds of migrants, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, attempted to reach the border with Ceuta on Saturday and clashed with Moroccan security forces in a mountainous area on the outskirts of Fnideq, about three kilometers from the border crossing.

Moroccan security sources told EFE that at least 294 migrants, 248 from sub-Saharan Africa and 46 Moroccan nationals, had been intercepted during operations to prevent a mass crossing. EFE

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