Moroccan media have criticised a Spanish police report that accused Morocco’s security forces of failures as tens of thousands of migrants crossed into the Spanish territory of Ceuta.
More than 70,000 migrants entered Ceuta from Morocco on July 30 and 31 in an unprecedented, chaotic surge that left scores dead and sparked European Union infighting over the touchy issue of migration.
The Spanish police report seen by AFP flagged a Moroccan police response of “total permissiveness” that it said facilitated the rush, with some officers directing migrants towards the water.
READ ALSO: Why are there still thousands of migrants in Spain’s Ceuta?
Moroccan police numbers around the border post were “clearly smaller than usual” and officers “made no serious attempt” to stem the surge, said the report.
But Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has consistently avoided blaming Morocco, noting that there was no “solid proof” that the North African country orchestrated the migrant rush.
Sánchez’s leftist government has tried for years to improve the countries’ historically delicate relations — notably over the status of Ceuta and Spain’s other north African territory, Melilla.
Moroccan authorities have yet to comment on the leaked police report, but several Moroccan media outlets have weighed in on its allegations.
Moroccan news site Hespress on Friday called it “particularly weak”, saying it lacked material evidence and contained “glaring contradictions”.
Hespress said the police report sought to make Morocco “the scapegoat” in Spanish political and judicial disputes.
Moroccan news site Le Desk on Thursday described the report as “botched”, pointing to factual errors including a reference to June 30 instead of July 30.
And TelQuel said that claims by some media that the report directly accused Morocco of “planning and executing” the influx were false, adding that the allegations did not name any Moroccan official as responsible.
News site Medias24 challenged the “permissiveness” claim by arguing that it was based solely on one satellite image that was “obviously just a snapshot”.
Last month, a senior Moroccan official told AFP on condition of anonymity there had been no Moroccan security failures during the influx.
READ ALSO: Migrant plight and local anger divide Spain’s Ceuta one month after influx
