Morocco has “the most powerful police force in the Maghreb”
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.
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On the evening of 30 July, the Moroccan author was leaving the reception held in M’diq for Throne Day when he saw thousands of young people walking through the darkness from the Tétouan region toward Ceuta, located about thirty kilometers farther north.
“On the road, I saw that the agents were allowing them to head toward Ceuta,” Tahar Ben Jelloun recounts in an interview with El País. He says he was particularly surprised that the movement had not been stopped as early as Tétouan.
“Political intelligence was lacking”
“I do not understand why they did not stop them in Tétouan. We have the most powerful police force in the Maghreb,” the writer asserts. In his view, the authorities could have sent the young people back home by explaining to them that they had no reason to be in Ceuta. “Political intelligence was lacking,” he judges.
Ben Jelloun nevertheless says he does not know the reasons that led the authorities to allow these groups to advance. Asked about the possibility that Rabat was reacting to the recent rapprochement between Madrid and Algiers, he says he doubts it. He adds that if the Moroccan government had indeed allowed migrants through to punish Spain, “that would have been a mistake.”
The writer mainly sees in this exodus a sign of unease among part of Morocco’s youth. He refers to young people fascinated by Europe and points out that some left their jobs in an attempt to cross the border. Morocco, he believes, emerges from the Ceuta tragedy with its image seriously damaged.
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Faced with images of young people walking toward a border where several lost their lives, Tahar Ben Jelloun says he felt “sadness and indignation.” His question remains unanswered: how could a mobilization of such magnitude have progressed all the way to Ceuta in a country whose security forces he himself emphasizes are so powerful?
