Spain Morocco
“Fortress defending the borders of civilisation”

Ceuta and Melilla are two Moroccan cities under Spanish sovereignty. Ceuta is 28 square kilometre wide. It is inhabited by 70,000 people. Melilla covers a 20 square kilometre area. It has a population of 56,600. The inhabitants of these two colonies are for 85 percent of Spanish descent and for 10 percent Muslim. A harbour, a considerable fish processing industry and a few shipyards are the main workplaces in Ceuta and Melilla. Their significance is linked to their geographical location: Ceuta lies on the eastern entry of the strait of Gibraltar, thereby assumes military-strategic importance. In summer 1936 Franco and his Phalangist troops crossed over to Spain from this location.
On August 13, 1999, in a radio interview aired on the Spanish radio station Cadena SER, Moroccan Prime Minister Abderraman Yusufi questioned the status of Ceuta and Melilla. He proposed some negotiations to be held in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in order to achieve more flexible status for the two cities. He took for example the “de-colonization” of Hong Kong and Macao. Spanish former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who arrived in Rabat on August 16, 1999 for a state visit, replied that Ceuta and Melilla were no colonies. The situation there was excellent and would remain so in the future. He said that it was out of question to discussion the subject any further. The stance of Aznar, leader of the conservative Peoples Party (PP) at that time, was supported by his political rival Joaquin Almunia of the Socialist Party (PSOE). Almunia praised Aznar’s "political astuteness". After declaring that such visit must lead to improved economic cooperation, Aenar said that Morocco's decision to restrict Spanish fishing rights in Morocco's territorial waters had to be revised. He added that the efforts of Morocco's social democratic prime minister and newly crowned head of state Mohamed VI in the democratization of the country had to be supported.
The Spanish left-wing alliance Izquerda Unida (IU) intervened in the debate with a considerable dose of patriotism. It declared that Aznar should have called off the visit to Rabat because of the "massive interference" of Yusufi. The Catalan regional party Esquerra Republicana (Republican Left) however declared that Spain had to begin the process of de-colonising Ceuta and Melilla: following a period of mutual Hispano-Moroccan sovereignty, the two cities would be reintegrated into the Moroccan state. In Morocco, the press had encouraged the position of Yusufi. The status of the two cities was depicted as a colonial anachronism. Spain was expected to acknowledge that the occupied cities of Ceuta and Melilla, as well as the Moroccan islands in the Mediterranean, were colonies to be de-colonised. Sooner or later, they must be re-attached to Moroccan motherland.
Fine. But Ceuta and Melilla are more than just fishing cities with a never ending colonial past. They are the door to Spain, therefore to Europe, therefore to better living conditions. As such, they are the destination for thousands of refugees from the whole of Africa, mainly sub-Saharan, who attempt to make a safe crossing in order to migrate to Spain and the European Union. Since the Spanish government fortified its southern frontier and secured it with military forces, hardly a day passes without news of stranded or arrested refugees trying to reach the Spanish mainland in boats that are not seaworthy. Immigrants' associations estimate that in this area of the Mediterranean many thousands of people have already died while attempting to escape. Survivors report that refugees who are picked up alive by the Spanish Guardia Civil are often harassed, beaten, robbed and immediately sent back to Morocco. Under these circumstances the escape route via Ceuta and Melilla is less dangerous. Living conditions for the people waiting on the other side of this wall are appalling. Spanish newspapers report hundreds of people from sub-Saharan Africa waiting in the pine woods of the Gugur' mountain bordering Melilla or villages around Ceuta, for an opportunity to enter Spain and Europe. They are without food or shelter. Hiding in the woods, they wait for nightfall so they can come down into the kitchen gardens of the already impoverished Moroccans living nearby to try and steal food in order to survive. Some years ago the Gugur' mountain near Malilla was populated with monkeys that tourists used to feed. According to the people in the area, hundreds of monkeys would run around the woods, crossing the roads in front of cars and even come down into Melilla itself during the dry season to look for food and water. Now there are none. Local people believe the waiting migrants have eaten them. They even report their dogs disappearing mysteriously.
The authorities in the enclaves have reacted to this fact by building a high-tech wall around both Ceuta and Melilla and reinforcing the Guardia Civil. Two 4 metre-high steel walls, 4 metres apart and 7 kilometres in length are being constructed around the Spanish enclave of Melilla and Ceuta from 1998 on. They are being modernised with newer high-tech equipment and water cannons until our days. The new border fortifications have been designed to prevent desperate migrants from entering Spanish colonies in Morocco, and then proceeding to Europe. The walls are fitted with visual and acoustic sensors, turrets and 70 closed circuit cameras. It replaces the old barbed wire fence through which groups of African migrants were able to enter the cities. This wall has remained more or less unknown until 2005. That year, a thousand of migrants tried to climb over the 3 to 6-meter high razor wire fence to get inside the camps. Police responded with a hail of rubber bullets that left five immigrants dead. The incident shocked Europeans, who presumably thought or had been told, that border shootings had ended with the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. The statistics showed that, during the past ten years, about 8,000 illegal immigrants have died grasping for the European dream. The new enlightened Spanish government, which has passed a series of human rights respecting laws (gay marriages, withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq,...), permits this wall to be called a “fortress defending the borders of civilisation (Europe Union),” requesting the cooperation of other European Union countries in their fight against illegal immigrants, as well as experience exchange with the builders of the wall along the border between USA and Mexico. Together we will win.