PRIME Minister Pedro Sanchez has said he’s seen no evidence that Morocco was involved in last month’s migrant surge into Ceuta.
Speaking to Cadena SER Radio on Monday, Sanchez said intelligence information showed ‘without doubt’ that Morocco played no part in up to 80,000 people going across the border into the North African enclave at the end of July.
“There was no information over the magnitude of what happened and obviously no one predicted that an avalanche of people on such a scale,” he stated.
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Asked about what lead to the mass crossing and details of what happened, he said investigations area ‘continuing’.
Sanchez emphasised the positive nature of Spain’s relationship with Morocco, which has ‘many relevant angles and aspects’.
The Premier described cooperation in the field of migration as ‘frankly positive’ and referenced Moroccan authorities sending a large police deployment to the Castillejos area when the crisis started to stop crossings into Ceuta.
Pedro Sanchez in his radio interview also dismissed a suggestion about transferring some of the illegal migrants to the mainland.
He stressed that ‘in the coming days, the city will have sufficient capacity’ to accommodate them with 6,000 places being enabled.
Sanchez added that the government’s priority was to resolve the status of children who crossed the border.
The administration estimates that around 5,000 migrants that entered in late July have remained in Ceuta, of which 1,200 area minors.
“Most of those who entered illegally on July 30 and July 31 did so for economic reasons and very foreseeably will be returned to Morocco,“ said Sanchez.
