This post was originally published on this site.
From Friday to Saturday, thousands of people entered Ceuta, a port city under Spanish colonial control on the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar, in northern Morocco. The vast majority are young people, many of them minors, who crossed by swimming or through the Tarajal border crossing, risking their lives. Media outlets estimate them to number as many as 40,000, which is almost half the colonial enclave’s official population. This figure is four times higher than the crossings that occurred in May 2021.
We are not witnessing an “avalanche” or an “invasion”: it is essential to combat the racist rhetoric that the right wing, much of the media, and even many “progressives” are using to justify repression against these youth. Rather, we are seeing thousands of young people fleeing a country where they have no future. This is primarily a consequence of the imperialist plundering policies that plague the region and the puppet regime of Mohammed VI, which serves them. While the right wing stirs up hate speech, the “progressive” government denies them even the most basic humanitarian assistance and has once again deployed the army to treat them as enemies. All this while it negotiates with the repressive Moroccan regime for summary deportations (expedited removals) and increased militarization of the border on both sides.
A Humanitarian Crisis
The situation in Ceuta is, at this moment, a major social and humanitarian emergency. The enclave’s meager reception facilities collapsed on the first day. Thousands of people have been sleeping outdoors for nights, on beaches, in open fields, and in the streets, without food, without enough water, without dry clothes, without medical attention, and without any information about their situation. There are unaccompanied minors. There are people injured and exhausted after hours at sea. Dozens of deaths at sea have already been reported.
In response, the government has not put forward a single significant measure to address the situation. No additional health care, no shelter, no food, and no legal assistance. The logic is one of encirclement: without basic means of survival, people are more likely to “give up,” leave Ceuta on their own, or offer less resistance to forced deportation. Hunger and cold are being used as methods of border management.
We demand the immediate opening of public reception spaces such as sports facilities, institutional buildings, hotels, and homes, requisitioned if necessary; the urgent deployment of health care and food resources; the effective protection of all minors; and guaranteed legal assistance for every person who has entered the country. And we demand that pathways be opened so that those who wish to continue their journey to the mainland may do so.
Against Militarization and Expedited Removals
The first response from the PSOE-Sumar government has been to reinforce the Civil Guard with the Army and close the borders of this colonial enclave and Melilla (another colonial enclave on the coast of Morocco). Military personnel are patrolling beaches and streets alongside the National Police, riot police reinforcements have been deployed, and progress is being made on an agreement with Rabat to expedite deportations.
Meanwhile, the PP and Vox parties seize on every image to stir up open xenophobia: they speak of an “invasion,” demand more repression, and conjure up phantoms to generate reactionary movements among the population, pitting natives against foreigners. The “progressive” government is acquiescing to their demands one by one, as it did in 2021 and as it did in Melilla in June 2022 — at that time with Podemos in the Council of Ministers — where dozens of people were killed and 470 were quickly deported.
Let’s be clear: there is no fundamental difference between the roadmap demanded by the Far Right and the one being implemented by the government. That is precisely why it is urgent to speak out now, before the expulsions take place. Every hour that passes without a response from below, hundreds of people are handed over to the Moroccan military with no guarantee whatsoever of what awaits them on the other side. Against the military deployment and the border closures! Against the expedited deportations that violate international law on the right to seek asylum or refuge!
Against the Externalization of Borders
These days, the narrative is circulating widely that the mass influx of young people into Ceuta is a maneuver by the Moroccan monarchy to pressure the Spanish government after its recent rapprochement with Algeria. It is also being said that it is a conspiracy orchestrated by Israel and the United States, via Morocco, against Sánchez for his stance on Palestine. It cannot be denied that the Moroccan monarchy has often exploited the desperation of its own population or their legitimate aspiration to migrate for diplomatic purposes. But to make this the primary explanation obscures the essential point and leads to a reactionary conclusion. According to this narrative, the problem is that the “border guardian” in Morocco has stopped doing its job properly, and the solution is to demand that it do so again. It couldn’t be more reactionary.
The fundamental issue is something else entirely. The Spanish State, as part of the European Union’s southern flank, has effectively outsourced its borders. The EU, through various migration or “security” pacts, finances Morocco, Turkey, and the various governments of Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Mauritania so that repression can take place there, away from the cameras, preventing people from leaving for Europe. It pays for this with direct funding for repressive forces, equipment, “cooperation” funds, trade agreements, and other means. The 2016 EU-Turkey agreement mobilized 6 billion euros. The EU finances and equips the so-called Libyan coast guard, which returns people to detention centers where mistreatment and torture are commonplace. In Mauritania, as a recent investigation revealed, the Spanish State and the EU have financed two new migrant prisons where even babies are imprisoned, their only crime being the attempt to flee. Because setting up concentration camps within the “European garden” is “frowned upon,” others are paid to build and run them elsewhere. That is the real content of the new European Pact on Migration and Asylum and the Return Regulation approved in June with votes from the Popular Party, the conservatives, and the Far Right: border screening, extended detention, return centers in third countries, and the elimination of the automatic suspension of deportations.
This externalization of borders is the “external” mechanism of institutional racism in European states, which is sustained internally through immigration laws, immigration detention centers, deportations, and also a constant flow of “regulated” migration to guarantee cheap labor for employers. The existence of “first-class” and “second-class” workers, without full rights or directly in an irregular situation, allows for the fragmentation of the working class between “natives” and “foreigners,” and even pits “good migrants” against “illegals.” All these are mechanisms to divide the working class and allow for greater exploitation and precariousness.
Return Ceuta and Melilla, and End the Plunder of Africa
Ceuta and Melilla are not “Spain in Africa”; they are two colonial enclaves that the Spanish State refuses to return thanks to their strategic value. As part of an anti-imperialist program, we demand their return to Morocco, along with the recognition of the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination, a right betrayed by Sánchez’s commitment to Mohammed VI in 2022 to support the Moroccan occupation plan.
If thousands of young people are taking to the sea, it’s because there is no future in Morocco. Youth unemployment hovers around 36 percent, public health care and education are being dismantled while billions are being poured into infrastructure for the 2030 World Cup. This misery is the product of imperialist plunder. Spanish multinationals like Acciona, Sacyr, FCC, ACS, and others have been profiting from this legalized theft for decades, just as Repsol, TotalEnergies, and BASF profit from the hydrocarbons and strategic minerals of the entire continent. Imperialist multinationals plunder — that is the true “invasion” that we must fight — and then imperialist states impose immigration controls at the behest of employers to guarantee cheap labor without rights.
Down with Fortress and Imperialist Europe
The reaction from European governments was swift. Meloni immediately demanded the suspension of the Schengen Agreement with Spain, and Von der Leyen declared on X that the images coming out of Ceuta were “unacceptable.” They are up in arms, trotting out the old narrative of “barbarians” coming to “invade” civilized and democratic Europe. But it turns out that images of the plunder of Africa are not “unacceptable.” Nor are those of the concentration camps that the EU finances in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Mauritania. Nor are those of hundreds of thousands of people condemned to misery by the exploitation of European multinationals. For imperialist governments, the only thing that is “unacceptable” is that those who suffer the consequences of this order dare to seek a better life by crossing their borders. That is the narrative of racist and imperialist Europe: those responsible for the plunder present themselves as victims, and the oppressed populations as an invasion.
Support the Resistance of Moroccan Youth
Those crossing the border today are the same generation that filled the streets of Agadir, Rabat, Casablanca, and Tangier last September and October with the Gen Z 212 movement, organized from a Discord server with over 80,000 members. They took to the streets after the deaths of eight women during childbirth at the Hassan II Hospital in Agadir, chanting, “Health first, we don’t want the World Cup!” The regime responded by injuring hundreds, a police truck ramming into the demonstration, several young people killed by the civil guard in Leqliaâ, at least 2,400 people charged, sentences of up to 15 years on charges of “armed rebellion,” and the arrest of rappers like Hamza Raid and Souhaib Qabli for their protest songs. This dictatorship, which imprisons anyone who sings against corruption or against ships carrying weapons to Israel, is sustained by the political, economic, and military support of Washington, Paris, Berlin, and Madrid.
Our solidarity is absolute with those young people who are rebelling against a puppet regime of imperialism or who are crossing borders to escape poverty. The working class, the youth, and the social movements of the Spanish State must mobilize immediately to prevent expedited deportations, repression, and further militarization of the borders. We must fight together with the youth and workers of Morocco against imperialist plunder and for a workers’ and people’s solution to the crisis.
For an Emergency Program and Long-Term Solution
In light of this situation, we demand the following:
Respond to the emergency now. Immediate opening of public spaces and requisition of empty premises for dignified accommodation; food, clothing, health care, and psychological support; protection of all minors; guaranteed legal assistance; freedom of movement to the mainland. Not a single expedited deportation. Immediate withdrawal of the Army from the streets and beaches of Ceuta, and no entry for Frontex (the EU Coast Guard agency), responsible for thousands of deaths in the Mediterranean.
Down with border policies. Repeal of the Immigration Law and closure of all immigration detention centers. Full and permanent legalization with full social, labor, and political rights. End to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum and the Return Regulation. Termination of all outsourcing agreements with Morocco, Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Mauritania, and closure of publicly funded migrant prisons. Return of Ceuta and Melilla to Morocco.
In fact, where does the money for all these prisons come from? The right wing and the government claim that “there are no resources.” This is a lie: billions of euros are allocated to military budgets to fuel imperialist war and to meet NATO’s new spending targets, which have increased defense spending like never before. The resources are there. Not a single euro for rearmament; everything for housing, health care, education, and migrant reception. In this sense, we demand guaranteed work for all: redistribution of working hours without wage reduction, expropriation of large property owners, and taxes on the wealthy.
Consistent anti-imperialism. Spanish and European multinationals out of Morocco and the entire African continent; return of assets and invested capital; compensation for decades of exploitation. Cancellation of illegitimate debt and exploitative trade agreements. Return of Ceuta and Melilla. Self-determination for the Sahrawi people and freedom for political prisoners.
Develop the mobilization. In this grave situation, we call on all organizations to contact us and organize joint demonstrations. This cannot go unanswered. The broadest possible unity of action is necessary to confront the racist campaign. If racist attacks and pogroms encouraged by the Far Right escalate, or if state repression escalates, the workers’ and anti-racist movement faces the challenge of organizing the self-defense of migrant communities and neighborhoods.
Let’s unite from below what they want to separate from above. No expedited deportations! Out with the army from Ceuta! Papers for everyone! Down with Fortress Europe!
This declaration was originally published in Spanish on July 31 in La Izquierda Diario — ES.
The post Ceuta: Against Militarization, Deportations, and “Fortress Europe” appeared first on Left Voice.