Spain apologizes over handling of Ceuta migrant influx

The Spanish government has apologized to residents of its North African exclave of Ceuta for the way it handled a surge in migrants last month and has announced plans to change the country's migration laws.

In the last two days of July, it is estimated that at least 72,000 people entered the territory, which has a population of around 84,000, from neighboring Morocco, with many swimming around border fences. At least 100 people reportedly died in the process.

The vast majority of people soon returned to Morocco, though a few thousand have stayed and are living without shelter in Ceuta.

Reports have said the influx was fueled by misleading claims on social media, and there have been suggestions it was linked to a long-running regional standoff over a former Spanish territory claimed by Morocco and contested by a pro-independence movement. However, the scenes and headlines generated by the incident have had a lasting impact.

"I want to apologize to all those who may have felt, or who even still feel, abandoned or not sufficiently cared for," Spain's Defense Minister Margarita Robles told a parliamentary committee. "I have witnessed firsthand your feelings of anxiety, of abandonment, of lack of safety."

The government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been under pressure over its handling of the incident, a situation not made easier by Robles and another prominent minister giving contradictory reports about what notice the government had of the issue, as well as what efforts were made to deal with it.

Robles told the committee that the country's security services had warned national authorities of what was about to happen on July 30.

"Our armed forces, intelligence services and ... the National Intelligence Center carried out the work that was and is required of them, and shared and analyzed this information with the state security forces and the staff of the government delegation," she said.

However, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has been saying for weeks that the border had not been reinforced, as the sudden mass movement of people could not have been anticipated.

The mayor of Ceuta, Juan Jesus Vivas, said it was wrong to call what happened "a migration crisis" because "people have the perception that this, if not orchestrated, was encouraged or permitted" by authorities in Morocco.

"Morocco has shown us that it is not reliable," he told the newspaper El Pais.

Eduardo Rubino, from the left-wing Mas Madrid party, was even more direct in his accusation, saying, "Let's call things by their name: Morocco is using human beings to attack our sovereignty."

Elsewhere in the Mediterranean Sea, a search-and-rescue operation off the Greek island of Crete on Wednesday morning rescued 218 people from three migrant boats.

julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com