A surge of migrants crossing into Ceuta has exposed both mounting human danger and what Spanish commentator Jesús Rivasés describes as a failure of preparation by the Sanchez government.
The immigration crisis arrived while Spain was still contending with a recent wave of wildfires. The dangers are immediate: people, including very young children, risk their lives to make the crossing. In Ceuta itself, there are no adequate means to receive and shelter the flood of arrivals fleeing poverty, and nothing can guarantee them a better life, at least not in the short term. Many migrants, once across, see no future there and have voluntarily turned back.
Rivasés recalls that John F. Kennedy noted how the Chinese write the word crisis with two brushstrokes, one meaning danger and the other opportunity. He also cites graphic humorist Andrés Rábago, known as Ops and El Roto, who defined a border in a 2004 strip in El País as the place where one madness ends and another begins.
The Sanchez government was caught off guard, initially rejecting a declaration of national emergency before reversing course and deploying the army. The origins of the crisis remain disputed. Some link it to a Supreme Court ruling that prohibits the immediate return of migrants who swim into Spain. Others argue that Sanchez’s alignment with Algeria prompted Morocco to allow the crossings to proceed unchecked. Rivasés notes that Spanish intelligence services closely monitor Morocco, making the government’s surprise difficult to explain.
