A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Authorities in Morocco broke their silence late Sunday after last week's mass crossing at its border with the small Spanish territory, Ceuta, in northern Africa. The death toll has now risen to at least 72 on the Spanish side, with Morocco now reporting 11 dead on its side of the border. NPR's Miguel Macias has been following this. Joins us from Seville, Spain. Miguel, what did Moroccan authorities have to say, and why is this the first we're hearing from them?
MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: Well, many leaders have commented on this crossing around the world, but Moroccan authorities have kept quiet. They don't usually talk to the press and they're not a democracy, so they don't really have to. On Sunday, they reported on those deaths on their side of the border, and they cited some of the same factors that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez mentioned last Friday - human trafficking gangs, the dissemination of misleading information online and the impact of recent decisions of Spanish courts, but A, my reporting tells me that some of those factors, like mafias, did not really play a role here. There are other obvious factors that are not being mentioned by authorities in Spain and Morocco.
MARTÍNEZ: Now what does your reporting say?
MACIAS: Well, some things are pretty obvious from the start of the crisis. I spoke to Ricardo Fabiani early on. He's project director for North Africa for the International Crisis Group. Let's listen.
RICCARDO FABIANI: We can safely say that this was a manufactured crisis. This was not a spontaneous crisis as some are suggesting.
MACIAS: To put it simply, A, tens of thousands of people do not show up at the border on their own on a particular day and are able to breach security at an area that is heavily monitored out of pure coincidence. Fabiani, other sources I've spoken to and dozens of videos documenting this crossing say there's clear evidence that Moroccan law enforcement allowed this to happen. Morocco has not commented on this.
Meanwhile, authorities on the Spanish side of the border were overwhelmed and had their hands tied by a recent court ruling. This ruling says that law enforcement cannot deport migrants who enter Ceuta swimming. So this combination of factors is what ended up unleashing the entire situation. Now the vast majority of the more than 50,000 people who crossed into Spain on Thursday have gone back to Morocco. They're from the region and they have homes to go back to, in contrast with other crossings in the past, when migrants came from other countries and simply could not travel back home.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So this is what happened. Do we know why?
MACIAS: We don't. But we do know some things that help us understand this complex situation. Maria Ramirez is deputy managing editor for elDiario.es.
MARIA RAMIREZ: Pedro Sanchez knows that he needs Morocco's cooperation, and he's willing to look the other way. So the main underlying problem is the relationship with Morocco, authoritarian regime that continuously weaponize immigration.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So weaponized immigration, pretty strong words. For what purpose?
MACIAS: Well, Morocco cares about its geopolitical interests, including claims over the disputed territory of Western Sahara and Ceuta itself. Moroccan authorities have used their control of the flow of migrants into Europe as a bargaining chip. Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has proudly taken on a role in the international stage as pro-controlled migration and anti-war in both the Gaza and the Iran conflicts.
That has made Sanchez some pretty important opponents - the Trump administration and Israel, both allies of Morocco. And many anti-immigration European Union leaders now are taking advantage of this opportunity to criticize Sanchez. So this crisis is now about to play out at the diplomatic level.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's Miguel Macias in Seville, Spain. Miguel, thank you.
MACIAS: Thank you.
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