Morocco has sentenced 11 people to prison and fines over their role in the mass invasion of the North African Spanish exclave of Ceuta last week.
According to Spain’s EFE news wire agency, citing data from the Moroccan Ministry of Justice, nine people were sentenced to prison terms between five and six months for “facilitating the clandestine departure of Moroccans and/or foreigners through places other than the border crossings enabled for this purpose”.
Two others were convicted of using electronic devices to encourage others to commit a crime.
Another 20 people have also faced prosecution and are awaiting sentencing on charges such as vandalism, damage to public property, assault on public officials, and the use of weapons in connection with the mass crossing of the Ceuta border last week.
The Moroccan Association for Human Rights also claimed that a further 52 people have been arrested and charged in the city of Nador over alleged crimes connected to the storming of the border, El Confidencial reports.
Latest estimates claim that around 72,000 illegal migrants broke into Spanish territory from Morocco last week. This came in the wake of a Spanish Supreme Court decision, which ruled that authorities were prohibited from conducting migrant pushbacks against anyone who arrives in Spanish territory by water.
This created a legal loophole for Ceuta, where migrants could simply walk into the water on the Moroccan side of the border and technically arrive by sea a few feet down in Spain.
It remains unclear exactly how the tens of thousands were mobilised for the seemingly coordinated attempt to break into the European Union state.
However, some, including VOX leader Santiago Abascal, have accused the Moroccan government of facilitating the “invasion”, which he said represented an “act of war”.
Multiple migrants involved in the incident have told the New York Times that they were actively encouraged by Moroccan police to break into Spain.
Youssef Alaoui, 26, told the paper that Moroccan police officers “kept saying, ‘Go that way, go that way.’” Another said that officers urged the crowds to “come to Spain”.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has also faced accusations of encouraging breaches of his own nation’s borders, including for his government’s amnesty scheme, which may see up to 1.3 million illegal migrants become regularised.
Opposition critics long warned that such a policy would act as a “pull factor” for more illegal migration to the EU nation.