Europe's New Migrant Crisis

[Yazata]

This time it's the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on the Moroccan coast. After the activist judges of the Spanish supreme court ruled that Spain can't prevent migrants from entering these territories, tens of thousands of military age males have been flooding in. Ceuta has a Spanish population of 83,000, so they are overwhelmed. There's no way that they can provide all the social services that socialist Spain promises to migrants.

Streets are filled with migrants, there are reports of fights between them and local Spaniards. There's serious concern about what will happen tonight, since the migrants have nowhere to stay and nothing to eat. There's fear that looting and home invasions may be coming. Locals in Ceuta are afraid and are calling for Madrid to declare a state of emergency and send the military.

If anything good comes of this, it's that it might be the nail in the coffin of Pedro Sanchez's ruling socialist government in Madrid. And hopefully the rest of Europe (and the UK) are watching closely. Italy's Giorgia Meloni seems to be.

There are huge crowds gathering on the Moroccan side of the border, pushing to get into European Union territory. Spanish intelligence reportedly believes that some 40,000 migrants have already entered. Spanish intelligence believes that it's orchestrated by Morocco in hopes of seizing the territory, which has been Spanish since the 16th century.

It looks like a whole bucket of steaming wet diarrhea has been dumped in the European Union's lap.

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https://x.com/AP/status/2082976467202277849

[Syne]

If you don't think that's an invasion, nothing is.

[Yazata]

There are unconfirmed reports that Morocco has declared a mass amnesty for criminals and opened up their prisons, on condition that the prisoners leave the country. The freed prisoners are being directed to Ceuta according to these reports. If true, it might explain why the migrants are all young men, with zero women and children.

Reports have started to come in of home break-ins. Expect lots of rapes by tomorrow morning.

The Madrid government has refused to declare a state of emergency, supposedly because according to Spanish law, migrants aren't legally a danger. Madrid is insisting that the military has been deployed to Ceuta, but that seems to be false. What has been deployed is the Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) a paramilitary national police force. And there is video of them standing alongside regular police, simply waving the migrants through the border into Ceuta. They've already surrendered.

In a couple of days there will likely be 100,000 Moroccans in Ceuta, with the Spanish either fleeing the territory or locked in their homes. And Morocco will have captured a city that's been Spanish since 1580. (And was Portuguese before that.)

The Spanish left still hasn't settled on a narrative. The most plausible thing some of them are saying is that this was orchestrated by the Moroccan government (probably true) and that Spain shouldn't let anyone set Spaniard against Spaniard. (So shut up anti-migration populists and don't blame the socialists.) There are the typical 'anti-fascist' types blaming 'racists' for making this a big issue. And there are voices (not sure how numerous) who are trying to depict this as an American and Israeli conspiracy, in league with Morocco. (Trump and Israel are the left's go-to enemies, after all. Trump has been critical of Spain's socialist government and Morocco has signed the Abraham accords. So obviously it's all a plot.)

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[C C]

[...] The Spanish left still hasn't settled on a narrative. The most plausible thing some of them are saying is that this was orchestrated by the Moroccan government (probably true) and that Spain shouldn't let anyone set Spaniard against Spaniard. (So shut up anti-migration populists and don't blame the socialists.) There are the typical 'anti-fascist' types blaming 'racists' for making this a big issue. And there are voices (not sure how numerous) who are trying to depict this as an American and Israeli conspiracy, in league with Morocco. [...]

Make no mistake about it, "open borders" is an inherent feature of socialism (either an immediate or incremental goal). Their own literature is up front about it. That's among the inevitable outcomes when voting for a DemSoc administration. Both they and their humanities allies in academia tactically bluster that these are caricature and fabrication fixations spread by opponents. And the mediator-dependent population (the unweaned), who never go directly to the horse's mouth for anything, buy into it. Of course, once a soc state becomes entrenched authoritrian-wise, the applicable country doesn't have to worry about an invasion of this type. People want to leave, not enter.

Why socialists have always fought for open borders (Left Voice)
https://www.leftvoice.org/why-socialists...n-borders/

Why revolutionary socialists argue for open borders (Socialist Worker UK)
https://socialistworker.co.uk/teach-your...n-borders/

Applicable political sub-cult of the DSA in the US:

RED STAR CAUCUS (wiki)
https://keywiki.org/Red_Star_Caucus

RED STAR CAUCUS (site)
https://redstarcaucus.org/

COMMUNISTS BELONG IN DSA (Red Star article)
https://redstarcaucus.org/communists-belong-in-dsa/

[Syne]

Death Toll Grows After Tens Of Thousands Of Migrants Invade Spain
“They’re not fleeing from war or poverty. It’s an invasion."

At least 34 people died Thursday as nearly 50,000 illegal migrants invaded the Spanish territory of Ceuta from Morocco.

Many of the deaths were drownings as migrants attempted to swim into Ceuta. Others were killed when they were trampled as the swarm of people broke down gates and overwhelmed Spanish border officials. Most of the migrants appear to be young men.

Leftist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who recently paved the way for a million illegal migrants to obtain legal status, claimed he would end the chaos.

“The Government of Spain is fully committed to providing an immediate response to the situation in Ceuta,” he said. “We are mobilizing all necessary resources, working with Moroccan and international authorities, and preparing the necessary measures to restore normalcy as soon as possible.”

Later on Friday, he added that the migrant flood “deserves our full reproach, our condemnation at the strongest possible level of rejection, condemnation, and consideration as deplorable.”

The military has been mobilized to respond to the massive influx of illegal migrants who were emboldened by a decision from Spain’s Supreme Court that migrants crossing by sea cannot be immediately deported.

As they pushed past border officials, migrants reportedly chanted “Bye Bye Morocco, hello Spain.” Almost 50,000 migrants entered Ceuta and they flooded the streets. One video shared online shows a man pooping in the streets.

“Businesses closed. Shops shut because if you open a business, it gets overrun. … We’re scared. The streets are packed. There are no measures in place. It’s every man for himself. They’re not giving us any help,” one local restaurant owner said.

Another local described the event as an “apocalypse.”

Migrant Ajoub el-Arrot told The New York Times he entered Ceuta looking for a job.

“I don’t know why they let us through. Maybe they had some political reason,” he said. “They opened the border and let everyone go by.”
...

[Yazata]

The Spanish interior ministry is claiming that 48,300 out of what they say were 50,000 (probably upwards of 60,000 in real life) migrants that entered yesterday have already returned to Morrocco. But local people in Ceuta insist that's totally false and at least 50,000 still remain. There are still crowds of migrants on every street, people have been stabbed, many small businesses have been looted, police have cordoned off a major supermarket to prevent it being looted by migrants in search of food. (Which results in locals also being unable to get food.)

Just yesterday the official line was that only about 1,500 migrants had entered and people reporting tens of thousands were getting 'fact checked' as 'false' based on the official number. Supposedly the higher number was fake-news from the "far right". But the video from out of Ceuta demonstrated that the official numbers were a fantasy. People could see with their own eyes what was happening, and the Spanish intelligence agency was putting the number at 40,000 at the time yesterday.

So the news being put out by Madrid and by the socialist-leaning establishment press in Spain simply isn't reliable. But it's what media all over the EU is repeating.

The narrative that all this is part of an American-Israeli plot to attack Spain and its socialist government in the name of Trumpism and zionism is taking root on the Spanish left and more people are repeating it.

For their part, the Ukrainian foreign ministry is claiming that it's all an elaborate Russian disinformation campaign. (Who knew that so many Russian agents lived in Ceuta?)

I guess the moral there is 'never let a good crisis go to waste'.

One thing that I think all this really does demonstrate is the value of crowd-sourced news on X. Certainly everyone has their own agenda, from the government to individual social media posters. But the latter are far less monolithic and more diverse than a government and they do let us see what they are seeing.

The Spanish army has arrived and the Madrid government is making lots out of that supposedly strong decisive action. Unfortunately, the soldiers say that they have been ordered not to use any force and merely to indicate to the migrants where the border is, so many of the migrants seem to be ignoring the soldiers and walking right by them. The local police are a little more forceful, using truncheons to remove looters from stores, but apparently no arrests are being made.

Local Spaniards in Ceuta have started organizing neighborhood militias armed with clubs to drive the migrants out of their neighborhoods, and the police seem to be more interested in stopping that than they are in halting the migrants.

The official line

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What people are still seeing outside their windows today

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[Syne]

Local Spaniards in Ceuta have started organizing neighborhood militias armed with clubs to drive the migrants out of their neighborhoods, and the police seem to be more interested in stopping that than they are in halting the migrants.

Of course they are. Self-defense is demonized by the left, in any form. Whether carrying guns or just defending your property with whatever you can find to hand... even against overwhelming numbers. You're supposed to bend over and take it, like a good little pussy.

[Yazata]

This little gem from Irene Montero, formerly "Minister of Equality" in the Spanish government from 2020 to 2023:

(translated from Spanish)

"I hope so, replacement theory, I hope we can sweep this country clean of right-wingers with migrant people. Whatever color their skin may be, whether Chinese, Black, or brown."

https://x.com/CapitanBitcoin/status/2083094408874934723

[C C]

This little gem from Irene Montero, formerly "Minister of Equality" in the Spanish government from 2020 to 2023:

(translated from Spanish)

"I hope so, replacement theory, I hope we can sweep this country clean of right-wingers with migrant people. Whatever color their skin may be, whether Chinese, Black, or brown."

https://x.com/CapitanBitcoin/status/2083094408874934723

The important thing is that this remains a freak, isolated occurrence rather than a movement emulated across the West. In the UK, it will be interesting to see the reaction from Labour, and even the Tories, to see if there's any sign of a wake-up call for both. Surely not.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Spain's PM blames traffickers after 60,000 migrants reach Ceuta from Morocco
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2kp639yx4o

EXCERPTS: The pime minister has blamed trafficking gangs after about 60,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco. At least 57 people died during the surge, according to local media. Pedro Sánchez called the incident a "violation of Spain's territorial integrity". Italy has responded by suspending the EU's border-free Schengen arrangements with Spain.

The influx comes after Spain's Supreme Court ruled that migrants stopped at sea while trying to reach Ceuta or Melilla, another Spanish enclave, cannot be summarily returned to Morocco. As of Friday evening, more than 48,000 people had voluntarily returned to Morocco, Spanish officials said.

One man told Reuters news agency he was going back, adding: "It's not good at all, and it's not fun either. I mean, people are dying here. I beg you, please, if you haven't come yet, don't come. Don't do it."

[...] Víctor Ortiz Sotomayor told the BBC he had "never seen anything like it", describing the city as "packed with immigrants, in every square and street, mainly looking for food".

[...] Referring to a previous surge of migrants into Ceuta, Carmen Gonzalez Bermudez said: "In 2021, we saw our police and our military doing something. Yesterday, they were in the streets, but they weren't doing nothing. So that for starters feels really scary."

[...] Speaking on Friday during a visit to Ceuta, Sánchez said the surge was caused by criminal networks purposefully misinterpreting the recent Supreme Court ruling. What has emerged from our talks with Moroccan authorities is that trafficking mafias took a self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling" which "spread like wildfire", he said.

He added that the government would look at reinforcing the border with Morocco, and that Moroccan authorities were co-operating with the return of those who had entered illegally.