Browsing: Ceuta

The maritime law concept of “innocent passage” allows foreign vessels to transit through a coastal state’s territorial waters. This is the legal basis Morocco invokes in incidents such as that of 30 July and for the presence of Moroccan ships while the mass influx of migrants at the Ceuta border was under way.

Thousands of residents lined the streets, waving Spanish and Ceuta flags, cheering the royal couple and holding signs reading: “Welcome to your home, Your Majesties.”

Spain’s royal couple are expected in Ceuta on Tuesday, 13 October, as the North African enclave continues to recover from an unprecedented migration crisis. On 30 and 31 July, more than 70,000 people crossed the border from Morocco, a figure approaching the city’s entire population of 80,000.

Ceuta made its presence felt at Spain’s National Day parade without a single one of its soldiers setting foot on Madrid’s Paseo del Prado.

Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are due to visit Ceuta on October 13 and Melilla the following day, in Felipe’s first visit to either city as king since he ascended the throne in 2014.

Two underage migrants were injured in a knife attack on Thursday during a fight in the La Marina area of Ceuta, in a new outbreak of violence amid the migration emergency gripping the city. The National Police intervened after the incident and emergency health services treated the two youths, who had cuts around their ankles.

The Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and French president Emmanuel Macron highlighted the close relationship between their two countries and urged greater European unity to confront key migratory, economic and geopolitical challenges.

For now, suspending the right to asylum in the European Union is still only under consideration.