Month: May 2021

MADRID – Spain faced a humanitarian and diplomatic crisis Tuesday after thousands of Moroccans took advantage of relaxed border controls in their nation to swim or paddle in inflatable boats onto European soil.

By Tuesday morning, around 6,000 people had crossed the border into the Spanish city of Ceuta since the first arrivals began early Monday, the Spanish government said, including 1,500 thought to be teenagers. The city of 85,000 people lies in North Africa on the Mediterranean Sea, separated from Morocco by a double-wide, 10-meter (32-feet) fence.

The sudden influx of migrants has deepened the diplomatic row between Rabat and Madrid in the wake of Spain’s decision to allow in for medical treatment the chief of a militant group that fights for the independence of Western Sahara. Morocco annexed the sprawling nation on the west coast of Africa in 1975.

Migrants soaked with seawater still kept reaching Ceuta on Tuesday although in smaller numbers than the day before due to heightened vigilance on the Spanish side of the border, where additional police and military were deployed.

“It’s such a strong invasion that we are not able to calculate the number of people that have entered,” said the president of Ceuta, an autonomous city of barely 20 square kilometers (7.7 square miles).

“The army is in the border in a deterrent role, but there are great quantities of people on the Moroccan side waiting to enter,” Juan Jesús Vivas told Cadena SER radio.

Vivas, a conservative, said the residents of Ceuta were in a state of “anguish, concern and fear.” He linked the sudden influx to Rabat’s shift on controlling migration after Spain gave compassionate assistance to Brahim Ghali, the head of the Polisario Front that has fought Morocco over control of Western Sahara.

The Spanish government itself officially rejects the notion that Morocco is punishing Spain for a humanitarian move.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska said Tuesday that authorities had processed the return of 1,600 migrants by Tuesday morning and that the rest would follow soon, because Morocco and Spain signed an agreement three decades ago to return all those who swim into the territory.

Many African migrants regard Ceuta and nearby Melilla, also a Spanish territory, as a gateway into Europe. In 2020, 2,228 chose to cross into the two enclaves by sea or by land, often risking injuries or death. The year before the figure peaked at 7,899, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry.

On Tuesday, another 80 Africans also crossed into Melilla, 350 kilometers (218 miles) east of Ceuta on the North African coast, by jumping over the enclave’s double fence.

Source: Voice of America

MADRID – Spain’s prime minister flew to the country’s North African enclave Tuesday to contain a migration crisis with neighboring Morocco after 6,000 migrants swam or walked over the border.

Spain deployed troops and extra police to repel crowds who were trying to get around security fences from Morocco into the tiny Spanish territory after a huge incursion of migrants the day before.

Videos emerged that appeared to show Moroccan soldiers opening security gates to let migrants through to the Spanish port city.

“This sudden arrival of irregular migrants is a serious crisis for Spain and Europe,” said Pedro Sanchez in a televised address to the nation before travelling to Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish enclave bordering Morocco.

European Union leaders backed Spain, saying the mass incursion in Ceuta was a breach of the bloc’s borders.

European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas called for a “strong protection of our borders.”

Experts suggested this huge influx, which included entire families, was an attempt by Morocco to pressure Spain to alter its policy toward Western Sahara, the disputed territory to which Rabat lays claim.

Morocco and Spain have been mired in a diplomatic dispute over the presence in Spain of a Polisario Front leader, whose movement has fought for the independence of Western Sahara.

The leader, Brahim Ghali, is receiving treatment at a hospital in Logroño in northern Spain, after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The Polisario Front fought a long war against Morocco to win the independence of the disputed Western Saharan territory, which was a Spanish colony until 1975.

Rabat claims the territory as part of Morocco partly as it contains important deposits of phosphates, but the Polisario Front has demanded an independence referendum.

Ignacio Cembrero, a Spanish journalist who writes frequently on Morocco, said Rabat had relaxed security measures on the border with Ceuta to try to force Madrid to change its stance on Western Sahara.

“The Moroccan foreign minister, Naser Burita, said in January that Rabat wanted Spain to change its policy to support Moroccan claims over Western Sahara. This is how it puts pressure on Madrid,” he told VOA.

Spain has long maintained a solution to the dispute can only come from an agreement brokered by the United Nations.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Naser Burita asked last week whether Spain wanted to “sacrifice relations with Morocco” by failing to inform Rabat of Ghali’s presence in Spain.

Analysts said it appeared Morocco was playing a familiar game by relaxing its border controls to prove a political point against its neighbor Spain.

“What has happened in Ceuta is another example of how Morocco plays with migration as a manner to pursue its own interests. The EU should not give ground faced with this pressure,” Estrella Galan, director of the non-profit Spanish Commission to Aid Refugees, told VOA.

Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, dismissed claims the arrival of thousands of Moroccans in Ceuta was linked to the row over Ghali.

“I cannot speak for Morocco, but what they told us a few hours ago, this afternoon, is that this is not due to the disagreement over Ghali,” she told Cadena Ser, a Spanish radio station. “Spain has been very clear and detailed about the (Ghali) case. It is simply a humanitarian issue.”

Source: Voice of America

BLANTYRE – Malawi lawmakers have taken a sudden U-turn and confirmed Martha Chizuma as the first woman to head the country’s anti-corruption bureau or ACB. Lawmakers had rejected Chizuma for the post last week, raising accusations that the opposition scuttled the process for fear of being prosecuted for corruption during their time in power.

Seventeen lawmakers on the Parliamentary Appointments Committee attended a special meeting Monday to review last week’s rejection of Martha Chizuma.

Thirteen lawmakers participated in voting, while four from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party walked out in protest of the new voting procedure.

Chizuma was then elected to lead the ACB with 12 in favor and one abstention.

Humphrey Mvula, a social and political commentator based in Blantyre, says the boycott of opposition lawmakers confirms public views that Chizuma’s rejection last week was a calculated move to frustrate the fight against corruption.

“Otherwise, they had no reason to walk out. But these individuals may have been under strict instructions from their bosses that ‘we must not confirm Chizuma’ and possibly are afraid of Chizuma as a more determined ACB director and she will not spare them,” he said.

During last week’s vote, half of the lawmakers on the committee gave her low marks after an assessment interview, and the aggregated result saw Chizuma scoring just 14.9 points out of a possible 25, below the minimum pass rate of 17.

This caused a public uproar, and Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera called on lawmakers to, in his words, put political and personal interests aside and do their part in accelerating the change Malawians have sought.

Parliament later passed a motion directing the committee to submit a detailed report on why it turned down Chizuma.

As an ombudsman, Chizuma investigated several recruitment procedures in government-owned institutions.

She recently removed five top officials from posts at Malawi’s communications regulator, saying they were illegally employed during the administration of former president Peter Mutharika and the then-ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP.

Mvula says he thinks Malawians are tired of corruption.

“And then that gives recipe Malawians who are looking for this vice to go away. And Chizuma is such a gallant person who so far, has shown that she will do it. This is the time when most individuals will be afraid to indulge in corruption because as an ACB director she has an enabling law that will make sure that she will just not investigate but she will investigate and arrest,” he said.

Chizuma did not respond to VOA inquiries for an interview.

However, she told a radio station that her first job as ACB boss will be to restructure the institution.

“My first priority is look at the staff structure of ACB and to see who is where and if we have got enough staff. Because you need to have right people in right places for an institution to tick and that’s my experience from office of ombudsman. If you have wrong people it won’t work,” she said.

Government authorities say the confirmation of Chizuma will complement President Chakwera’s fight against graft.

Source: Voice of America