Dire Straits

The Spanish city of Ceuta, sixteen miles south of Gibraltar and bordered by Morocco, saw an influx of tens of thousands of asylum seekers at the start of August, almost all of whom returned to Morocco once they realised they wouldn’t be able to get from there to mainland Spain. Ceuta and the similarly situated Melilla are subject to movement checks on exit under Schengen, so getting into either doesn’t mean you’re automatically getting into continental Europe. The surge was apparently triggered by far-right disinformation on social media. There was also the US Congress’s recent report saying Ceuta and Melilla were “located in Moroccan territory” and encouraging diplomatic engagement between Morocco and Spain over their future status, as if they were Hong Kong and Macau. Ceuta has been European-held since before Europe knew America existed, first by Portugal in 1415, then Spain in 1580. Melilla has been Spanish since 1494. Spain’s Parliament could issue a report saying that the USA is…