While the southern border of Spain is often seen as a symbol of the difficulties faced by migrants, many others face an equally difficult obstacle: bureaucracy. To obtain a residence permit, one often has to wait for years, except in rare cases where the state accelerates the procedure for humanitarian reasons.
A Moroccan migrant of around 26 years old, who traveled from Chefchaouen to Ceuta hidden under a bus, found himself trapped under the vehicle. He was rescued by the firefighters of the autonomous city.
Some restaurants and hotels in Spain are using Moroccan labor on site. These are mainly Moroccan minors who have become of age and need a job to stay in the peninsula.
Migrant traffickers from Morocco continue to mock the Spanish security forces with their jet skis. They land the migrants in Ceuta and return to the Moroccan coasts without being bothered, as evidenced by a recent video recorded by witnesses on a Moroccan square.
The Maritime Captaincy of Ceuta has decided to restrict the use of jet-skis in its jurisdiction. From now on, these vehicles will no longer be able to travel more than two miles from the coast of the autonomous city or leave Spanish waters. This, in order to fight against the use of these vehicles for the trafficking of migrants and drugs from Morocco.
The Spanish police have just assigned 18 agents from the elite Special Reserve and Security Group (GRS) unit to the command of the Civil Guard of Ceuta to effectively combat drug and migrant trafficking by jet skis from Morocco.
Morocco and Spain are studying the ways and means to ensure the repatriation, with "all legal guarantees", of the some 137 unaccompanied Moroccan minors still staying in the reception centers of Ceuta.
Spain has opened an investigation into allegations of shootings on migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands from Morocco. A charity claims that Moroccan soldiers opened fire on these migrants, causing several injuries and possibly one death. So far, no response has been obtained from the Moroccan authorities regarding these accusations, reports Reuters .
Since the outbreak of the corruption scandal known as "Qatargate", the difficulties in returning Moroccans rejected from their asylum application to their country of origin have increased.
A Moroccan woman from Martil and her 10-year-old son were arrested by the Civil Guard, at the height of the Chorrillo beach, as they were trying to reach Ceuta by swimming.
The national police arrested in Bilbao a Moroccan couple who exploited migrants through labor. In addition to prison sentences, they face fines of 10,000 euros for each person exploited.
Six of the seven Moroccan seasonal workers recruited by the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) of Granada, as part of a pilot experiment for the asparagus campaign, have disappeared.