'Sovereignty is not negotiable': King Felipe tells Morocco to back off as Spain's royals make first Ceuta visit since 2007
Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia at a Muslim cemetery in Ceuta, where the king called for 'good faith' from Morocco during his first visit to the territory following the migration crisis.Residents welcome the Spanish monarchs outside Ceuta's Palacio Autonómico, where Spain's king called on Morocco to act in 'good faith' following the migration crisis.
King Felipe VI made his most forceful defence yet of Spanish sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla on Tuesday, declaring to cheering crowds that "any threat" to the border "is a threat to the whole EU." The two-day trip — the first by a Spanish monarch to the territory since a 2007 diplomatic crisis with Rabat — comes in the wake of July's mass crossing, in which more than 70,000 migrants flooded into Ceuta, leaving more than 100 people dead. Rabat made no official acknowledgement of the visit, while Moroccan King Mohammed VI had warned only days before that his country's migration cooperation with Spain depends on a "sovereign choice" that he could revoke at will.
Around 15,000 migrants are still thought to be inside Ceuta, a city of 84,000 residents, stoking social tension and looming large over the Spanish election campaign ahead of a November 29 vote.
Felipe and Letizia laid their respects at Ceuta's Muslim cemetery, the resting place of many who perished in the July crossing, after which the king vowed the Spanish state would not abandon Ceuta's residents "alone or defenceless."
El País reported that Moroccan warships entered Ceuta's territorial waters without authorisation on July 30-31 on multiple occasions, withdrawing only after Spain's Navy sent its own vessels to the area.
