Who could be behind the attack on Spain by migrants and what consequences has this crisis led to?
In recent days, Ceuta – a tiny Spanish enclave in North Africa – has resembled a battlefield. Tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from Morocco, attempted to reach the territory of an EU country in chaotic and dangerous conditions.
At least 88 people died. Their bodies were recovered from the sea, where they were found alongside abandoned inflatable rings and flippers.
The number of arrivals, estimated at around 50,000, amounted to more than two-thirds of Ceuta’s permanent population, forcing local authorities to declare a state of emergency and a humanitarian crisis.
The peak of the crisis in Ceuta has now been brought under control – almost all of the irregular migrants who arrived have been deported back to Morocco, where they came from. However, the episode has highlighted divisions among EU capitals over the sensitive issue of migration.
Read more about the crisis and its consequences in the article by European Pravda journalist Iryna Kutielieva: A double attack on Spain: could Madrid lose its participation in Schengen because of 50,000 migrants from Africa?
It all began on 30 July, when thousands of migrants simultaneously attempted to enter Ceuta (a city bordering Morocco), both by land and by sea.
The migrants crossed the border using inflatable rings, car inner tubes and other improvised flotation devices. Irregular migrants also broke through border barriers and checkpoints.
The current migration crisis is not something new for Ceuta. Similar situations have occurred before, but their scale was incomparably smaller.
The government believes that the trigger for the current crisis was a decision by Spain’s Supreme Court issued on 8 July.
But what happened on 30 July looks like a coordinated attack.
The day began with relatively small groups of migrants attempting to swim around the breakwater. Within a few hours, this turned into a genuine flow of people entering Spanish territory by both sea and land.
And there are good reasons not to rule out the possibility that the Moroccan authorities were involved in creating this flow.
The Moroccan side of the breakwater is normally patrolled by the country’s gendarmerie, which cooperates with the Spanish Civil Guard to prevent migrants from crossing the border. However, according to Spanish authorities, during the days of the largest influx of migrants, Moroccan law enforcement officers simply disappeared.
The main theory is that the hybrid attack by the Moroccan authorities may have been prompted by the recent rapprochement between the government of Pedro Sánchez and Algeria, Morocco’s regional rival.
Morocco denies any role in the current crisis and attributes the mass influx of migrants to the activities of "criminal groups".
The influx of migrants quickly became a political flashpoint across Europe.
In particular, the crisis triggered a diplomatic dispute between Spain and Italy. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who faces parliamentary elections next year, has intensified her anti-immigration rhetoric and lashed out at her Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez.
Italian airports and seaports are carrying out selective checks on passengers arriving from Spain.
Italy’s tough stance has also been supported by other countries.
On 4 August, the EU Council on Justice and Home Affairs will meet to discuss the migration crisis in Ceuta: 22 EU leaders signed a letter calling for such a meeting.
They are calling for the cancellation of all measures that could become "pull factors" attracting migrants to Europe. This most likely refers to Spain’s controversial decision to legalise hundreds of thousands of migrants.
There is a very high probability that the current crisis – especially if it escalates – will prompt countries to increasingly close themselves off and introduce checks at their borders, undermining the very essence of the Schengen Area.