Spanish media reports on Tuesday indicated that Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska is under increasing pressure to visit Morocco to enhance cooperation in combating illegal immigration, especially with the growing pressure in the occupied city of Ceuta and the Canary Islands.
The Spanish press conveyed a request from the JUCIL association, affiliated with the Spanish Civil Guard, urging the Interior Minister to visit Rabat to seek Morocco's assistance in tackling the migration pressure. The association highlighted the challenges faced by Civil Guard personnel, particularly in Ceuta, in dealing with the phenomenon.
According to the same sources, the Civil Guard-affiliated association pointed out in its request to the Interior Minister that the resources available to the Civil Guard are insufficient to handle the influx of irregular migrants. Moreover, the human resources are also inadequate to manage the situation, especially with the hundreds of migrants arriving simultaneously.
The association is calling on the Interior Minister to visit Morocco to explore ways of cooperating to combat illegal immigration, aiming to alleviate the pressure on Civil Guard personnel who are currently facing difficult conditions. The association also emphasized that the European Union should cooperate to address the escalating issue of illegal immigration.
These demands come at a time when Ceuta is facing a complicated situation, as hundreds of migrants, including minors, have managed to infiltrate the city, taking advantage of dense fog along the coastal strip between Fnideq and Ceuta.
Local authorities in Ceuta reported on Tuesday that the city is currently overwhelmed by a large number of minors. They have requested their counterparts in Melilla to cooperate in distributing some of the minors in Ceuta to shelters in Melilla.
As of Tuesday, the Spanish government has yet to issue any official statement or declaration regarding the migration pressure in Ceuta. The local government in the city has only praised the role played by Moroccan auxiliary forces in preventing hundreds of migrants from reaching the city.
Amid the ongoing migration pressures, it is expected that Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska will visit Rabat to meet with his Moroccan counterpart, Abdelouafi Laftit, to discuss new strategies for dealing with repeated migration attempts to Ceuta and the Canary Islands from Moroccan territory.
