The Boomerang Returns: Ceuta’s Meltdown Exposes Europe’s Fracture Lines and Economic Blind Spots — News. by - EUROPE SAYS
Brussels is in uproar: frantic phone calls, blocked lines, rising panic. On 4 August, interior ministers from all 27 EU member states are due to hold an emergency meeting over the migration crisis in. . .
Brussels is in uproar: frantic phone calls, blocked lines, rising panic. On 4 August, interior ministers from all 27 EU member states are due to hold an emergency meeting over the migration crisis in Ceuta. Late last week, Europe’s sun-drenched strategic foothold on the African coast descended into chaos within hours. According to varying estimates, as many as 60,000 migrants forced their way into the Spanish enclave — more than half of Ceuta’s entire permanent population. The scale alone conveys the magnitude of the disaster. Local residents scrambled to shutter shops, board up windows, and form makeshift self-defence groups on the spot in a desperate bid to protect their property. The European Union, meanwhile, had neither a Plan B nor any real tools of containment. The situation did not merely spiral out of control — it detonated inside Europe itself, exposing political impotence, bitter divisions, and, above all, unvarnished double standards. Madrid claims that most of the migrants have already been returned. Yet telling images tell a different story: as military convoys transported people back toward the Moroccan border, some leapt from the moving vehicles and vanished into the hills. Reuters reports that up to 5,000 remain in Ceuta, sleeping on bare ground and in the undergrowth. Only after several days did the authorities begin distributing food — five days of hunger in the self-proclaimed “prosperous and humane” Europe. “We could have helped them by serving them,” said Ceuta resident Carlos. “But the police ordered us not to give them food or water, or even sell it to them, because otherwise they would stay. Yet when you see these young kids, 14 or 15 years old, how can you refuse to sell them food or water?”For centuries, European colonisers plundered Africa, extracting resources and stripping successive generations of any real chance of a viable future. Now that future is kicking down the doors. The boomerang has returned. Western media directly link the surge to a July ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court that prohibits the automatic return of migrants intercepted at sea without lengthy individual assessments. Rachid El Khalifi, spokesperson for Morocco’s Interior Ministry, stated:“In this context, particular attention is drawn to recent decisions by Spanish judicial authorities that limit the possibility of the immediate return of certain irregular migrants intercepted at sea. These rulings, accompanied by inaccurate interpretations and misleading information, have fostered among some would-be border crossers the belief that immediate return can be avoided. This has contributed to the emergence of a common pattern of irregular migration attempts based on swimming across the border, as some calculated that this offered greater chances of evading prompt repatriation. ”Recall the reaction when a few groups of migrants crossed from Belarus into Poland. Brussels erupted in global outrage: European leaders hysterically denounced a “hybrid war” and an “act of aggression. ” Troops were mobilised, steel walls erected, “dragon’s teeth” installed, and sanctions rapidly imposed. And now in Ceuta? Tens of thousands are storming the EU’s external border. Where are the sanctions against Morocco? Where are the accusations of hybrid warfare? There is only silence. The price of European principles, it seems, is measured in euros and share prices. The reason for this selective blindness is cynical and economic. One in every six Renault cars is produced at the plant in Tangier; the French government holds a 15 percent stake in the company and profits directly from those sales. German industry is equally deeply embedded in Moroccan automotive supply chains. Today’s emergency meeting will almost certainly end in the usual fashion: a ritual statement of “deep concern,” another injection of millions for Madrid to throw money at the flames, and a collective pretence that everything remains under control.