Morocco warns of new mass migration attempts towards Ceuta, Melilla

Morocco has arrested a group of people suspected of inciting new attempts to cross illegally into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, the Interior Ministry reported Wednesday, saying calls were circulating on social media for mass crossings on August 15.

The ministry said it had monitored anonymous posts and messages in recent days calling for collective attempts to enter the two enclaves illegally. It said the calls sought to exploit the migration issue for acts of incitement punishable under Moroccan law.

The authorities have taken all necessary measures to prevent illegal crossings and to intercept people attempting to participate, the ministry said. It added that legal action would also be taken against those promoting such calls online.

The ministry did not specify how many people had been arrested or when the arrests took place. It said only that a group of people suspected of incitement had been detained and placed under judicial investigation under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor.

The ministry urged people not to follow what it called “suspicious and misleading calls,” warning that attempts to cross the borders illegally could endanger people’s lives. It also stressed that combating irregular migration and human-trafficking required shared responsibility and closer cooperation between the countries concerned.

The latest warning follows a major migration surge into Ceuta in late July, when tens of thousands of people attempted to reach the Spanish enclave from Morocco.

Estimates of the scale of the crossings varied considerably. Ceuta’s regional president, Juan Jesús Vivas, at times put the number as high as 80,000, while Morocco estimated that around 40,000 people had attempted to reach the enclave.