The Moroccan foreign minister has condemned what he considers to be "unprecedented media hostility" launched by Spain against Morocco

Marruecos acusa a España de ocultar el verdadero motivo de la crisis

photo_camera PHOTO/REUTERS - Morocco's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita

Morocco, faced with the migration crisis in Ceuta, which has led to the entry of more than 8,000 people illegally through the Tarajal border crossing, has remained completely silent. Until Thursday, when the Alawite Kingdom announced that the Moroccan ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, who was recalled to Rabat for consultations on Tuesday, "will not return for the duration of the crisis, and the crisis is not due to the presence of Brahim Ghali on Spanish soil, but because of his lack of explanation and respect", as the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, explained in a press appearance.

Finally, Morocco has broken the silence that has characterised it and has accused the Spanish government of trying in recent days to divert the attention of public opinion and of carrying out manoeuvres to conceal the real reason for the crisis with the North African country. According to the official news agency MAP, Bourita urged Spain to recognise and assume "its serious attitudes" and avoid "double-speak".

The Moroccan foreign minister also insisted that "Morocco will continue to ask for clarification and will continue to consider that this is the root of the crisis". "Morocco does not engage in blackmail, Morocco is clear about its positions, its actions and its attitude", Bourita claimed, in a clear response to the words of the Spanish Defence Minister, Margarita Robles.

Atalayar_MArgarita Robles, ministra de Exteriores en Funcione

The Spanish Defence Minister, Margarita Robles, has issued a strong warning to the Alawi country in the last few hours: "Spain is not to be trifled with. We will not accept the slightest blackmail". Robles also accused Rabat of deliberately violating the rules of international law by "throwing" minors across the border, putting their health and integrity at risk.

Bourita condemned what he considers to be "unprecedented media hostility" launched in Spain against Morocco. According to the Moroccan Foreign Minister, the terms used in this campaign, such as "blackmail", "aggression" or "underdeveloped country", show that "some circles in Spain should update their knowledge of Morocco".

While the accusations between Rabat and Madrid continue, in the early hours of Thursday morning 30 migrants managed to gain access to Melilla after jumping the double fence that separates the autonomous city from Morocco. The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, in an interview on Cadena COPE, said that all of them will be "located and the appropriate procedures will be carried out so that, if they do not qualify for international protection, they will be returned".

Atalayar_Grande-Marlaska

According to the Minister of the Interior himself, the situation "is fairly normal, given the previous days and the situation we have had to face from the outset and with the necessary resources. In this sense, most of the adults who crossed inappropriately have returned". Grande-Marlaska confirmed that 6,500 of the 8,000 migrants who entered irregularly have already been returned.

Position of the Sahrawi Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADEDH) on the situation of Brahim Ghali

The Saharawi Association for the Defence of Human Rights (ASADEDH) expressed its "surprise and perplexity" on reading the report delivered to the Magistrate of Court No. 5 of the National High Court on the situation of Brahim Ghali in Spain. According to ASADEDH, the report states: 

  1. That Brahim Ghali was registered in the hospital without nationality.
  2. That he was registered under the name of Mohamed Benbatouch.
  3. That he was accompanied by a foreign doctor (Algerian).
  4. The report of his state of health comes from a military hospital in Algiers.
Atalayar_Crisis migratoria Ceuta Marruecos

The association also indicated that Brahim Ghali claimed that he would not sign any summons from the judge without the presence of a representative of the Algerian Embassy in Madrid, so they claim that Ghali has incurred with the approval and complicity of "others" in the serious crime of usurpation and falsification of identity.

From ASADEDH, they claim that "Ghali has denied his origins and what he was supposed to fight for, therefore, he has condemned and sentenced the self-proclaimed 'SADR' to cease to exist".
 

More in Politics