Four weeks of conversations and contacts with the authorities of Tetouan and Nador, the Moroccan provinces adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla, have been of no use.. As this Sunday, October 8, marks one month since the earthquake that hit Morocco, the NGOs and volunteers of the two autonomous cities have not managed to deliver the humanitarian aid they collected to the neighboring country..

The civil governments of both cities have not given them a resounding “no” to their request, but they have told them to be patient, that their request would continue to be studied, and that they were waiting for the response from the Ministry of the Interior in Rabat..

If this delays a few more days, we are going to give up on the expedition and all that help will be distributed among needy families in our city, which are many,” says Amin Azmani, local deputy of Somos Melilla, a small political party in the city. Tarik Abdeslam, who in Ceuta heads 317 Homes, an association of residents in Loma de Colmenar, expresses himself in the same terms..

Both have been involved – along with some other local association – in the collection of clothing, footwear, tents, blankets, non-perishable food and some basic medicines, with the intention of sending them to the victims of the earthquake that on September 8 caused almost 3,000 dead and about 3,000 injured. “In a location located next to the University Hospital, we have stored 4,500 kilograms of aid,” Tarik Abdeslam proudly explains on the phone.. “People have been generous,” he adds..

In reality, the problem is that the Moroccan authorities refuse to allow any new merchandise to pass through these two land borders.. Only people and the vehicles that transport them cross, after passing some annoying bureaucratic controls.. They do not want customs to be opened because it could be interpreted as a step towards the recognition, by Morocco, of Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla, say unofficial diplomatic sources..

Non-existent customs

To this explanation, Juan Luis Aróstegui, former general secretary of CCOO in Ceuta, added another in an article published in September in the newspaper El Faro de Ceuta: “Morocco has not invested billions of euros in developing the area adjacent to Ceuta in order, Now, open an 'escape route' for economic flows through a territory that it calls 'occupied', that it does not recognize, and which it shamelessly suffocates as a means of pressure at the service of its annexationist theses.”.

President Pedro Sánchez announced on April 7, 2022, at the end of his Ramadan dinner with King Mohamed VI, that a customs office would be inaugurated in Ceuta and the one in Melilla, which Morocco closed, would be reopened—without communicating it to the Spanish authorities— August 1, 2018. It had been in operation for a century and a half. The Spanish Government did not protest.

Although three specific pilot tests have been carried out since January to send goods across land borders, these customs offices still do not exist.. The Moroccan authorities do not even apply the so-called traveler regime included in their customs regulations at the borders.. This would allow a person entering Morocco from Ceuta or Melilla to carry small purchases worth less than 200 euros.. People from Ceuta and Melilla cannot carry small gifts, not even a box of sweets, to their relatives residing in Morocco and tourists cannot take a souvenir either..

Even so, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, stated on September 22 in New York – in a meeting with the press on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly – that the roadmap announced in April 2022 by President Sánchez “is fulfilling”. A year earlier, also in New York, Albares expressed himself in those same terms.

The Moroccan Ministry of the Interior only accepted, on September 10, official aid to mitigate the consequences of the earthquake from four countries: Spain, the United Kingdom, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.. So it did allow volunteers from Spain and other places to take to Morocco the products that were transported aboard vans and by ferry from Algeciras to Tangier..

The 317 Homes association also considered sending its aid from Ceuta to Algeciras and from there to Tangier, but finally gave up due to the high freight costs.. That was exactly what the Ministry of the Interior led by Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba had to do in October 2006.. He wanted to donate 72 all-terrain vehicles to Morocco to improve its fight against immigration and moved them to Ceuta to deliver them by land. But Rabat refused to receive them. Spain had to send them by sea to Algeciras, and from there to Tangier. The Moroccan authorities also do not accept ships from autonomous cities in their ports..

The situation is now worse than in February 2004, when Morocco was hit by another earthquake that caused 629 deaths.. It then took about 48 hours, but he finally allowed the Melilla firefighters, and the aid they were transporting, to travel across the land border to the heart of the Rif, the area of the earthquake. The President of the Government was then José María Aznar.

Apart from the aid from individuals, which will not reach its destination, the governments of Ceuta and Melilla, both in the hands of the Popular Party, have each donated 50,000 euros to Morocco. These items are not sent directly to the Moroccan authorities, but have been processed through the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.