This much we know: at around 6 in the morning on Thursday, on the 6th of February, a group of around 250 people headed towards the Spanish-Moroccan border in Ceuta. Members of the Guardia Civil, the police force in control of Spain’s borders, headed out to prevent these would-be migrants from crossing the border. The vast majority of the original group turned back and stayed on Moroccan soil. Around 25 of them managed to enter Spain, but were stopped by the Guardia Civil and sent back. A further 14 – 15 according to the latest reports – drowned in the sea just off the shore. Everything else about this disaster is very much open to interpretation, with government officials, Guardia Civil spokespersons and humanitarian activists each holding conflicting views. The fact that each side is telling its own story is illustrative of the obscurity that surrounds anti-migration strategies in the Mediterranean sea, and shows once again just how broken the system is.
The time-line of the scandal
The first news reports on the disaster did not treat it as anything out of the ordinary. Deaths of migrants near the Spanish coasts have been occurring regularly for well over a decade now, and they no longer make headline stories. This case in particular took place near Ceuta, one of Spain’s two enclaves in Moroccan territory, and the only land borders between Africa and Europe. These enclaves have attracted many immigrants in recent months, who either attempted to jump over the fence that separates Spain and Morocco, or swim around it in order to reach the Spanish coast. This, then, was not an uncommon event.
Map of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (www.paradiseintheworld.com)
However, things would soon change. Humanitarian NGOs spoke to some of the men and women who had tried to cross the border, and asked for their version of the story. According to them, the Guardia Civil had fired rubber bullets and tear gas cannisters in order to protect the border. This allegedly caused the migrants to panic, and led to many of them drowning just a few metres off the coast. The Guardia Civil’s initial statement, in contrast, denied any responsibility in the deaths of the migrants, and also claimed that no anti-riot equipment had been used.
The disagreement between NGOs and Guardia Civil was about to become even stronger. More and more witnesses seemed to confirm the rumours of anti-riot equipment use by Spanish police forces. A video, picked up by all major television channels, showed migrants reaching Spanish shores only to be stopped and turned back by border police – something contrary to international law. And as pressure began to mount, Guardia Civil representatives released new statements. At first they sheepishly confirmed that rubber bullets had been shot, but they denied having used tear gas. Then they released a video of their own, heavily edited, which suggested that the migrants at the border were so many and so violent that forceful tactics were required.
To add to the confusion, Spain’s Interior Minister spoke on the 13th of February, just a week after the original events. He admitted that border police had used tear gas against the immigrants – something that the police still denied. He also confirmed that rubber bullets were fired towards the water while there were migrants swimming, another detail that was initially rejected by the Guardia Civil. Despite these contradictions, he ended his statement by re-affirming his support for the Guardia Civil, and insisting that the border patrol’s actions had been perfectly legal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTcdGlMKPPE
What should we make of all this?
This is fast becoming a scandal beyond Spain’s borders. European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström has demanded a clarification from the Spanish government. Spain’s political opposition called for an impartial process to find out what exactly happened and who is responsible for it. And yet all we have got so far is a bunch of official statements contradicting each other, while public representatives deny such contradictions altogether.
This is the never-ending story of modern Europe. So open and transparent in many of its decision-making processes, so opaque when it comes to protecting its borders. During the past decade or so, we have known very little about what happened at Europe’s southern borders. There was the odd scandal here and there, such as the shipwreck at Lampedusa or the use of razor-sharp barbed wire on Spain’s border fences. But overall, we know next to nothing about how Fortress Europe’s borders are kept migrant-proof.
The pervasive contradictions over the recent disaster at Ceuta are nothing new. The fact that government, police and migrants are all sticking to conflicting stories could mean one of two things: the first is that state authorities are trying to hide the truth, using these constant contradictions as a smoke screen to cover up what really happened. The second is that, in fact, European border control has become so complex that no-one really knows what is going on at any given time. Whichever option you choose to believe – something needs to change.
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