In May 2021, Moroccan authorities suddenly lifted border controls with the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
In the days that followed, thousands of migrants desperately tried to make their way
into the territory, either by scrambling over the high fence that separates it
or by attempting to get there by sea.
All this served to highlight the ongoing dispute between Spain and Morocco
over this and several other tiny pieces of territory dotted along the Mediterranean Sea.
So, what exactly is the dispute all about? And what sparked this latest
flare-up in tensions between the two countries?
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Hello and welcome. If you're new to the channel, my name is James Ker-Lindsay and here I take an
informal look at international relations, conflicts and the origins of countries.
While we tend to think of border disputes in rather straightforward
terms, as a difference between two countries over a joint land boundary,
such disputes can in fact take a variety of other forms.
In some cases, they can centre on territorial waters and islands.
However, a rather more unusual and fascinating type of dispute focuses on enclaves and exclaves.
These are pieces of one country's territory that are either entirely located within the
territory of another country - an enclave - and/or are separated from the main country
and have a land border with another state, an exclave.
Where one of those borders is a sea they are more properly known as semi-enclaves and semi-exclaves.
One of the most interesting border disputes in the world is centered on a series of Spanish holdings
in North Africa, including the semi-enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta, and a series of small islands.
Over the decades, they've become a point of friction with neighbouring Morocco,
which regards them as occupied territory.
While the issues tend to not be a source of day-to-day conflict, tensions do sometimes arise.
This was seen recently when thousands of migrants suddenly converged on the enclave of Ceuta.
So, what is the issue all about?
The dispute is centered on the northern coast of Morocco,
at the western end of the Mediterranean Sea, and involves six distinct territories.
The two most significant at the spanish semi-enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta,
which lie about 200 kilometres from each other.
Classed as autonomous cities by Spain, and making up two of the 19 main administrative
districts of the country, they have around 85,000 inhabitants each.
In terms of size, Ceuta is slightly larger than Melilla,
at 18.5 square kilometres as compared to 12.3 square kilometres.
Then there are three small territories that contain small military garrisons:
Velez de la Gomera, another semi-exclave on the Moroccan mainland,
the island of Alhucemas and the Chafarinas Islands.
Interestingly, Velez should be an island.
However, since a storm in 1934 created a land link, it has been attached to Morocco
with what's widely considered to be the world's shortest land border, at around 80 meters.
Finally, there's the tiny uninhabited islet of Perejil,
lying just 200 meters from the Moroccan coast, a little to the west of Ceuta.
For our purposes, the story really begins with
European attempts to gain a foothold in North Africa in the 15th century.
In 1415, Ceuta was captured by the Portuguese eventually passing to
Spanish control following the end of the union between Spain and Portugal in 1640.
Meanwhile, Melilla was conquered by Spanish forces in 1497; Alhucemas in 1559; and Velez in 1564.
In 1668, Spain took control of perejil.
Over the course of the following centuries,
Morocco attempted to win back control of the territories.
However, in 1860 following a short war
it explicitly recognised Spanish sovereignty over the territories,
as well as over the Chafarinas Islands, which had been occupied by Spain a decade earlier.
Following a decision by France and Spain to carve up Morocco into spheres of influence
at the start of the 20th century, in 1912 the two countries formally extended their
control over the entire country - with Spain taking control of the northern
coast and a southern strip lying alongside its colonial territory of Spanish Sahara.
This would last for almost half a century until Morocco
finally regained its independence, in 1956.
But while Spain ceded sovereignty over most of the areas it had previously controlled in the north,
it retained control over Melilla, Ceuta and the other territories that had held before 1912.
Although Morocco laid claim to these territories, arguing that they now amounted to occupied land,
Spain refused to discuss the question of sovereignty; arguing that their inhabitants
were Spanish and that they had been Spanish territory even before Morocco formally existed.
But, despite their differences,
in 1991 Spain and Morocco signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation.
Under the terms of the agreement, they undertook to settle disputes peacefully and not threaten
or use force against the territorial integrity or independence of one another.
As a result, while tensions over the territories may have continued to simmer,
they rarely boiled over.
For example, while in March 1995 Melilla and Ceuta were formally designated as autonomous
Spanish cities - a decision condemned by Morocco - a planned visit to Melilla by
the Spanish king in 1997, to mark the 500th anniversary of the conquest of the city,
was cancelled following Moroccan pressure.
However, despite their pledge to avoid force in July 2002 the two countries in fact came
dangerously close to war after a Spanish patrol boat spotted
a Moroccan flag flying on the island of Perejil.
After a small detachment of Spanish troops sent to investigate was forced to withdraw
following a confrontation with armed Moroccans, the situation escalated quickly as Madrid
sent special forces troops to retake the islet - capturing
six moroccan soldiers in the process - and moved its navy into the area.
While Spain insisted that it was acting in self-defence, Morocco accused Madrid
of turning a political issue into a military one and that its behaviour amounted to an act of war.
In the end, the crisis was diffused by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell.
Following numerous calls, the sides agreed to return to the previous status quo.
Tensions would emerge again five years later, in 2007,
after Spain announced that King Juan Carlos was planning to visit Melilla and Ceuta.
Following the cancellation of the previous planned visit in the early 1990s, this would
be the first such visit to either territory since the start of his reign 30 years earlier, in 1975.
And the first visit by a Spanish head of state in over 70 years.
While Morocco demanded that Spain call off the trip, it nevertheless
went ahead prompting the Moroccan king to call for negotiations over the territories.
However, in the years since then things have seemed to be generally quiet, until now.
So, what sparked this latest crisis?
Interestingly, it seems as though the roots of the most recent tensions
lie in a very different issue: Western Sahara.
I won't go into a lot of detail about this as I've covered it in other videos.
I have put links up above and in the description below.
However, the issue centres on Spanish decolonisation of the territory in the mid 1970s.
Although the United Nations had decided Western Sahara should have a right to self-determination,
the Moroccan government moved in to seize it.
This in turn sparked an insurgency led by the Polisario Front,
which led efforts to create an independent Western Saharan state.
Although a ceasefire was reached between Morocco and Polisario in 1991,
this came to an end in November 2020 when the Front resumed its attacks on Moroccan forces.
It was against this backdrop that news emerged in April 2021 that the Polisario Front leader,
Brahim Ghlai, had been allowed to enter Spain for medical treatment.
Although Madrid insisted that the decision
was taken for purely humanitarian reasons m, Morocco was outraged.
After having summoned the Spanish ambassador to the foreign ministry to explain the decision,
it announced that there would be repercussions for Spain's actions.
It was just a few weeks later, on Monday 17 May,
that Morocco abruptly lifted its controls on the border with Ceuta.
In the days that followed, up to eight and a half thousand migrants from Morocco
and other African countries - including hundreds of unaccompanied children and
teenagers - began trying to get into the enclave, in hopes of being able
to make their way into mainland Spain and then the rest of the European Union.
While some attempted to scale the six metre high fences that had been set up in 2005
following a previous migrant crisis, many others crowded onto small boats,
or even tried to swim, to get into the territory by sea.
Against claims of violence and heavy-handedness, Spain quickly
reinforced the border and was able to bring the situation under control within a few days.
By the end of the week, the vast majority had been sent back into Morocco.
However, anywhere between 800 and a thousand unaccompanied minors still
remain in the city of Ceuta, putting major pressures on its resources.
Needless to say, Spain reacted angrily to what it saw as a deliberate move by Morocco.
The Spanish foreign minister openly condemned Rabat's decision to use
migrants as retaliation for Spain's decision on Ghali.
Meanwhile, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez,
accused Morocco of having shown disrespect to the European Union.
At the same time, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign and Security
Policy - the EU's foreign minister - Josep Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister,
also appeared to signal his displeasure at events,
reminding Morocco that Spain's border in Ceuta represented the borders of the European Union.
As things stand, the situation now appears to be under control.
However, while the immediate crisis appears to be over,
both Spain and Morocco have come under heavy criticism by international human rights bodies.
Spain has been criticised for its harsh treatment
of the migrants and for sending so many back without due process.
Meanwhile, Morocco was condemned for using people's lives as pawns in a political game.
The recent migrant crisis around Ceuta has once again drawn international
attention to the long-standing border dispute between Spain and Morocco.
As well as the enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta, this is also focused on a number of other tiny
territories that Spain refused to cede to Morocco when the latter became independent in 1956.
Of course, the two sides have very different views on the dispute.
For Morocco, these territories are seen as last vestiges of a colonial pass that
should have been given back to it when it regained its statehood.
In contrast, Spain argues that the territories were never in fact Moroccan.
They belonged to Spain long before Morocco even existed.
Moreover, their populations are largely made up of people who consider themselves to be Spanish.
Their wish to remain part of Spain should be respected.
Of course, few outside observers miss the irony
that Spain doesn't hold the same view on the British exclave of Gibraltar,
which adjoins mainland Spain and is just 20 kilometres north of Ceuta.
This is an issue that i hope to return to in a future video.
In any case, as a result the territories have given rise to occasional bouts of tension.
But what makes this latest incident so particularly interesting
is that the disputed territories were not the main point of tension this time.
Instead, it appears as though they became part of
a very different dispute between Spain and Morocco over the Western Sahara.
In this sense, it represents a rather interesting
and unexpected development in the long-standing dispute between Spain
and Morocco over what is, by all accounts, a rather strange collection of territories.
I hope you found that useful. If so, here are some more videos that you might find interesting.
Thanks so much for watching and see you in the next video.