Border fence near Ceuta

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Map of Ceuta
Border fence and guard post (2011)
The geographic location of Ceuta

The border fence near Ceuta is a fortified border between Morocco and the Spanish city ​​of Ceuta . The exclave of Ceuta is located on the North African mainland on the Strait of Gibraltar . The aim of the border system is to prevent illegal immigration and smuggling .

development

In 1993 the first 8.2 km long fence was erected on the land border with Morocco, 75 percent of the costs were borne by  the EU . The fence of that time proved to be unsuitable for preventing border crossings at the beginning. Two years later, the construction of an extended facility with barbed wire began . In 2005 it was increased from three to six meters. The entire system is (as of 2008) 24 km long.

According to an investigation in 2014, the fences are sometimes up to 12 meters behind the actual border on Spanish territory, so that people outside the fences are already in Spain. In order to apply for asylum, however, according to the Spanish state in 2014, those seeking protection would have to reach the “functional” or “operational” limit, which only begins behind the multiple fences.

Crises

When several hundred people tried to get over the fence in 2005, Spanish border guards shot the crowd with rubber bullets and Moroccan ones with live ammunition. At least eight people died and some were injured. Then the fence was raised from three to six meters; Obstacles in front of the fence should loosen up any crowds.

2016

On December 9, 2016, around 400 people from sub-Saharan Africa managed to get over the border fence to Ceuta.

In 2016, according to Frontex estimates, almost a thousand migrants made it across the borders of Ceuta or Melilla into Spanish territory; there haven't been that many in years.

2017

At the turn of the year 2016/2017 around 1,100 people from sub-Saharan Africa tried to violently break through the border fortifications. The attempt was repelled, 55 police officers and several border violators were injured.

During a mass onslaught on February 17, 2017, around 700 men, mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa, some of them equipped with tools and clubs, tried to overcome the border fortifications. 11 Spanish and 10 Moroccan police officers and at least 30 of the storming men were injured in clashes. 498 people broke or overcame the barriers, 55 people were immediately sent back to Morocco. The UNHCR called for the rest of the people who got over the fence to be transported to mainland Europe so that they could be housed in a decent manner while their asylum applications were being examined. Around 400 people were cared for in the Centro de Estancia Temporal de Inmigrantes (CETI) reception center in Ceuta.

Three days later, on the morning of February 20, another 300 refugees and migrants crossed the fence into Spanish territory. Eleven people were so badly injured when crossing the border fortifications that they had to be taken to hospital.

Observers speculated that Morocco may have instructed its police not to stop the refugee movements in the direction of Ceuta in order to have leverage in economic negotiations with the EU. The government of Morocco issued a corresponding warning of a flow of refugees if the economic agreement failed at the beginning of February 2017.

2018

In June 2018 there was a change of government in Spain: Mariano Rajoy (PP) was voted out of office by a vote of no confidence; Pedro Sánchez (PSOE) became Prime Minister and formed the Sánchez cabinet . One week after taking office, the new Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska (non-party) announced that he would campaign for the removal of the barbed wire.

At the end of July 2018 there was another rush of over 800 migrants; they had cut holes in the border fence. Around 600 of them managed to enter Ceuta; they attacked police officers with homemade flamethrowers and caustic quicklime . 15 injured police officers and 16 migrants were hospitalized. Grande-Marlaska then said that the barbed wire of the border fence should be removed anyway; the security level could also be maintained with “less cruel means”.

On August 22, 2018, 116 more migrants managed to overcome the border fence after over 300 migrants tried to storm the fence. Seven police officers were injured again with slaked lime, battery acid and excrement in order to prevent them from securing the border. The following day, all the migrants involved were deported to Morocco . According to the Spanish authorities, none of the deported migrants had applied for asylum even though they had received legal assistance.

2019

On August 30, about 150 people from a group of 250 migrants successfully crossed the border fence. Six police officers and nine of the migrants were injured.

On November 18, 2019, a Moroccan broke through a border gate with a pickup truck. 52 people from Sub-Saharan Africa then left the vehicle and were taken to an infirmary by security forces.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jaume Castan Pinos (2009) quantified here (unless otherwise specified) the number of deaths on the 13th
  2. ^ Jaume Castan Pinos: Building Fortress Europe? Schengen and the Cases of Ceuta and Melilla (pdf, January 12, 2009, working paper), School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast .
  3. ^ Raphael Minder: At Spanish Enclave, a Debate Over What Makes a Border. The New York Times November 24, 2014.
  4. ↑ Visit to Ceuta and Melilla - Mission Report Technical mission to Morocco on illegal Immigration 7th October– 11th October 2005 , europa.eu. European Commission website . Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Migrants break in to Spain's Ceuta enclave in North Africa" Euronews of December 9, 2016
  6. ↑ FAZ.net February 17, 2017
  7. ↑ Reuters.com January 2, 2017: Hundreds of migrants try to storm border into Spain's enclave of Ceuta
  8. ↑ spiegel.de January 2, 2017
  9. ↑ Lizzie Dearden: "Hundreds of migrants scale 20ft fence into Spanish enclave of Ceuta as refugee route shifts" The Independent of February 18, 2017
  10. ↑ Ceuta: Hundreds of refugees storm the Spanish exclave. In: Zeit Online . Retrieved February 17, 2017 .
  11. ^ Paul Day: "Hundreds of migrants cross into Spain's Ceuta in second wave in three days" Reuters of February 20, 2017
  12. ↑ "Hundreds of refugees break through the EU's external border with Morocco" Sueddeutsche Zeitung of February 20, 2017
  13. ↑ Spain's new government: Interior minister wants to do “everything” to dismantle barbed wire to Ceuta and Melilla. Epoch Times , June 14, 2018, accessed July 26, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Migrants attack officials with self-made flamethrowers. Die Welt , July 26, 2018, accessed July 26, 2018 .
  15. ↑ spiegel.de
  16. ↑ Spain wants to remove blades from exclaves on border fences
  17. ↑ Thomas Laeber: Border fence overcome: Spain deports 116 migrants directly from Ceuta. August 23, 2018. Retrieved August 23, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Thomas Urban , Spain's U- turn in Asylum Policy sz.de , August 24, 2018.
  19. ↑ [1]
  20. ↑ "Small van with 50 migrants breaks through the border to Ceuta" Welt.de of November 18, 2019
  21. ↑ "Un kamikaze revienta las puertas de la frontera y cuela a 52 inmigrantes en Ceuta" elfarodeceuta.es of November 18, 2019