FOOD? WATER? SHELTER? Aid Volunteers Bring ‘FREE PALESTINE’ Politics to Ceuta Migrant Crisis

Spanish volunteers arriving in Ceuta to provide aid to Moroccan migrants mixed politics with humanitarian assistance, wearing Free Palestine T-shirts and getting a crowd of migrants to chant “Free Palestine.”

Critics have said that what the migrants need are basic necessities like food, water, and shelter. Chanting slogans with them that are disconnected from their plight shifts the focus from their urgent needs to political messaging about the activists’ pet causes.

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In this case, critics have also pointed out that Morocco is a party to the Abraham Accords and is an ally of both Israel and the United States.

The crisis in Ceuta began on July 30, when utter chaos erupted across the autonomous city as roughly 72,000 migrants, mostly young men, poured over the border from Morocco into the Spanish city, triggering a massive humanitarian crisis. Within days, about 70,000 returned to Morocco, but about 2,000 remained in Ceuta.

Video footage showed migrants flooding stores and clashing with police, while other footage appeared to show Moroccan authorities emptying out truckloads of young men at the border. Although Morocco is supposed to enforce border control, some migrants have said that the border guards simply let them through.

The crisis caused tensions to flare among EU countries, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni threatening to suspend the Schengen Agreement, which allows for free movement between countries, as she slammed Spain’s lax immigration policies for creating an environment that allowed such a catastrophic crisis to explode.

Many blamed Spain’s Supreme Court ruling that migrants who cross illegally would not be immediately deported but given due process. Others argued that poor migrants would not know about the recent ruling, but critics have countered that smugglers and human traffickers would have known and spread the word.