New York Times
Some migrants rested while others lined up for processing at a sports center in Tarifa, Spain, after hundreds were intercepted in the Strait of Gibraltar.
By RAPHAEL MINDER
TARIFA, Spain — In just two days this week, the Spanish authorities intercepted as many migrants trying to slip into the country by sea from Morocco as they had in all of last year, the Spanish Red Cross said.
Waves of inflatable dinghies attempted to cross the Strait of Gibraltar on Monday and Tuesday, carrying people trying to enter Spain illegally. The influx was so great that the Spanish authorities, who brought the migrants here to this port city, converted two local sports centers into makeshift shelters.
Then, just as suddenly as they started, the crossings dwindled to a trickle. By Wednesday, only a few boats were waylaid, and not a single one was encountered in Spanish waters on Thursday and Friday.
Spanish analysts contend that the flow and ebb of illegal crossings was orchestrated by Morocco. While not directly acknowledging responsibility for the events, Mohamed Hasad, the Moroccan interior minister, did suggest that there might have been security lapses this week. “Dysfunctions may have happened and will be corrected very quickly,” Mr. Hasad said, according to reports in the Spanish news media.
Once migrants reach Spanish soil, there is only a chance they’ll be allowed to remain.
LAURA LEON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The episode underscored the importance of Morocco in controlling migration into Spain, and the extent to which the Spanish authorities rely on it to maintain vigilance in the face of thousands of desperate people trying to find their way to Europe.
Earlier in the week, Spain said the flow of boats carrying illegal migrants was the result of Spain’s improved efforts to prevent illegal migration by land into Melilla and Ceuta, two Spanish enclaves in North Africa that are surrounded by Morocco. The enclaves’ metal fencing and border surveillance systems have been significantly strengthened since May.
“The pressure from the sea has increased following the security reinforcement around the fences of Ceuta and Melilla,” said Carlos Floriano, a senior official from Spain’s governing Popular Party.
But on Wednesday, when the flow of migrants reaching Tarifa had substantially subsided, the answer seemed to lie in Morocco.
Such a security lapse is “normally not a coincidence or an accident,” said Haizam Amirah-Fernández, senior analyst for Mediterranean and Arab issues at the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid, a political policy organization. Relaxing migration controls “has been used by Morocco to show dissatisfaction with Spain, or because it was not getting something it wanted,” he added.
Political analysts and commentators in the Spanish news media speculated that Morocco wanted to underline its importance to Spain in the fight against illegal migration. Some also said the lapse was retaliation by the Moroccan authorities, after a Spanish judge in Melilla agreed last week to investigate claims by nongovernmental organizations of violence against migrants by the Moroccan police.
Treatment of the migrants has been a festering issue in Spain, as well, particularly since February, when 15 people drowned off Ceuta after the Spanish police fired rubber bullets at them. Even in the face of substantial roadblocks, migrants have tried persistently to get to Europe through Spain. They continue to try to storm the triple fences that block them from reaching Ceuta and Melilla, though with far less success since metal mesh was added. Some have spent hours stuck on top of a fence before giving up, or suffered injuries during the climb.
Crossing by boat is treacherous. While fewer than nine miles divide Spain and Morocco at the narrowest point of the Strait of Gibraltar, many people have died trying to cross it. To reach Tarifa, migrants travel in small inflatable boats, not the far larger but also rickety trawlers generally used to reach Italy. Once they reach Spanish soil, there is no certainty that they will be sent home. The migrants spend a maximum of 40 days in a detention center. After that, Spain releases them with an order of expulsion — unless their identity has been verified and the authorities decide to allow them to apply for asylum. They are sent home if Madrid has an extradition agreement with their country of origin.
On Thursday, about 400 African men sat or slept around a basketball court in one of Tarifa’s sports centers, waiting to be photographed and fingerprinted by the police. The authorities had already moved women and children to other detention centers across southern Spain or to housing provided by nonprofit organizations.
One migrant said he was from Cameroon and another from Mali, but the authorities stopped a reporter from interviewing them further.
Among the migrants was a baby girl, who reached Tarifa alone, and was quickly named “Princess” by rescue workers. Her parents were thought to have remained in Morocco.
While Spanish police officials say it is difficult to identify the migrants, Amnesty International accused Spain on Thursday of “prioritizing the protection of its borders ahead of the protection of people,” said Esteban Beltrán, director of the Spanish chapter of the organization. Amnesty said that some of the migrants in Tarifa should be entitled to asylum protection, because they come from conflict zones in countries like Mali and Nigeria.
Adding to the tension over the migrants were fears about Ebola, particularly after Miguel Pajares, a Spanish priest, died on Tuesday in a Madrid hospital. He had been working in Liberia and was the first European to be evacuated from Africa after contracting the disease.
Some of the staff working in Tarifa’s sports center wore protective masks and gloves, but not everyone did. Miguel García, a Red Cross spokesman, said the migrants were in good health, even if some suffered from hypothermia during their boat crossing. The Ebola risk is “very, very limited,” he said.
“These are people who have been on very long journeys to get as far as Spain and certainly haven’t just left their countries in the past two weeks,” when the Ebola virus started to spread significantly in Western Africa, he said.
