Tahar Ben Jelloun says he cannot understand how tens of thousands of young people were able to head toward Ceuta without being stopped earlier by Moroccan law enforcement. For the writer, the strength of the security apparatus is precisely what makes this episode difficult to explain.
The migration crisis in Sebta has abruptly brought Morocco’s cooperation with Europe back to the center of the debate. But several weeks before the events at the beginning of August, European elected officials were already calling for funding granted to Rabat to be used as leverage over expulsions.
After the Ceuta crisis , several analysts believe that Rabat’s proximity to Washington is bolstering Morocco’s confidence in its dealings with Spain and a Europe dependent on its cooperation on migration. However, no public evidence demonstrates any coordination with the Trump administration.
Following the events in Ceuta, the European Commissioner for Migration wants to obtain greater cooperation from Morocco. Among the levers he proposes using are trade, European funding and visa policy .
In Ceuta, Sabah Hamed has turned her home into a humanitarian aid point. She receives around 400 migrants there every day, the vast majority of them Moroccan, offering them food, clean clothes and the chance to wash.
Before the mass attempt to enter Ceuta, the social networks did not all play the same role. TikTok attracted potential migrants, Facebook brought the routes together, while WhatsApp turned the desire to leave into a concrete rendezvous.
France refuses to follow 22 European countries after the Ceuta crisis. Paris believes their initiative primarily targets the Spanish government and favors a response developed with Madrid and the Moroccan authorities.
Morocco refuses to be reduced to the role of Europe’s policeman after the Ceuta crisis. A government source says the kingdom is protecting its own territory and cooperating as a sovereign partner, not as a subcontractor tasked with holding back migrants.
Behind the mass crossing to Ceuta , several young Moroccans describe salaries too low to live on and a lack of prospects. For some, messages circulated on WhatsApp were the trigger for leaving.
Morocco says that misleading information convinced some would-be migrants that reaching Sebta by swimming would protect them from immediate return. Smuggling networks allegedly exploited this confusion.
They had swum for hours and risked their lives to reach Ceuta. A few hours later, thousands of young people were nevertheless trying to return to Morocco , after discovering hunger, the streets and the impossibility of reaching mainland Spain.
Hamza had a job and a salary that many young Moroccans would envy. Yet a few videos he saw on TikTok and Instagram convinced him to abandon everything for Sebta. Two days later, he was sleeping hidden in an alley.