Ceuta shows how the worldwide migrant crisis has been weaponised by propagandists. 

Stark images of thousands of migrants swarming across Africa’s border with Europe during the Ceuta crisis appeared heaven sent for far-right polemicists. They constructed dismal reactions within hours of Morocco allowing the young and fit to get into the Spanish exclave. Cameramen were all conveniently on hand to record last Friday’s drama, as the notoriously dishonest politicians emoted to order.

“Make no mistake, these men are on their way to the UK right now,” former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman posted on X, in a manner that was as untruthful as it was inflammatory. Priti Patel, a politician with a shameful record for corruption, who once held the same position as Braverman, also claimed they would “inevitably try to make their way to the UK”.

In fact, none of those involved were going anywhere near Britain. The vast majority – more than 40,000 – were back in Morocco within a day, as what looked like a coordinated stunt fizzled out almost as quickly as it started.

What rabble-rousers like Braverman and Patel failed to mention at all, of course, was the scandalous loss of life. At least 80 people drowned during the day, in absolutely horrific circumstances, which included swimmers being held under the water by the sheer number of other bodies trying to get around sea obstacles.

There had been viral messages on social media highlighting a Spanish Supreme Court ruling of July 8 that anyone entering Ceuta by sea would no longer be kicked out immediately. More incriminating still, survivors described how Moroccan police and soldiers had encouraged them to make their way on to the Spanish territory during a short time window on Friday.

The government in Rabat certainly has form for manipulating the highly unusual situation in Ceuta for political reasons. The territory on Morocco’s northern coast has been under Spanish control since the late 16th Century, along with Melilla, a couple of hundred miles away.

They are both technically part of the European Union (EU), but there is no free movement – special rules restrict people from travelling from them to mainland Spain, let alone anywhere else. This does not stop the Moroccans from using both Ceuta and Melilla to terrify Europeans concerned by mass immigration from Africa.

On this occasion, it appears that the Moroccans were trying to punish Spain for supporting the Palestinian cause, and indeed for backing Algeria in the deep political and diplomatic conflict with Morocco over Western Sahara – Africa’s last colony.

The Moroccans administer more than two-thirds of Western Sahara, while the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, an indigenous group who seeks independence from Morocco, controls a smaller eastern strip.

In June, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez became the most senior European leader to accuse the Israeli government of carrying out a genocide against defenceless civilians in Gaza. Morocco is, notoriously, now a big supporter of Israel as it pursues its massacres and illegal land grabs on Palestinian land, including in the Occupied West Bank.

Morocco is also angry at Spain’s increasing closeness to Algeria, which Sánchez visited for the first time in four years last week, in a bid to improve diplomatic ties. Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune said talks with Sánchez were “fruitful and frank”, and gave “a new impetus” to bilateral relations.

What better way for the Moroccans to intimidate the Spaniards by exposing the weakness of its African border as an alleged threat to the stability of the EU?

Other EU countries were certainly furious by what happened in Ceuta, with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni temporarily suspending the EU’s border-free Schengen arrangement with Spain.

There is nothing new in such chaotic situations. In 2021, a Spanish hospital treated Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario Front. Morocco responded by allowing 10,000 peoplethrough Ceuta in two days.

Thousands stampeded through the border at Melilla in 2022 too, leading to almost 30 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa losing their lives, while many others have since died at sea.

Throughout this time, the far-right continues to flood the media with claims of “migrant invasions”. Sánchez is now implementing some of the most liberal migration policies ever seen in Europe, including mass amnesties for those without papers. He argues that regularisation boosts the economy, and is thus an advantage to everyone in the EU.

Unsurprisingly, Israel has done as much as its allies in Morocco to take advantage of the Ceuta crisis. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, tried to compare the theft of Palestinian land across Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, and the on-going extermination of indigenous Palestinians, to the situation in North Africa.

He said: “Spain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel, declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis linked to its immigration policy. “Perhaps before continuing to lecture us, it’s time it explained to the world why it still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa,” Danon added.

The comparison is actually ludicrous. Whatever your views about Imperial history, Arab Muslims have never been murdered by the Spanish in Ceuta or Melilla, and nor have there been military-backed attempts to take their property. Instead, the vast majority of those living in the two autonomous exclaves want to be Spanish. The principle of self-determination is thus upheld, and contrasts sharply with Palestinians who have no wish to be persecuted, or indeed wiped out, by Israel on their own land. In which case, the Israeli-style propaganda that has fuelled the latest manufactured migrant crisis in Ceuta is as grotesque as it is predictable.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.