A ‘harsh’ first ruling in Morocco after Ceuta surge with 7 taxi drivers jailed, union says
The drivers were fined $1,070 each and can appeal after judges said they helped move migrants through unauthorized border points.
- On Monday, a court sentenced seven Moroccan taxi drivers to six months in prison and fined them $1,070 each for aiding irregular migration by driving clients to the border town of Fnideq.
- Fueled by false social media rumors that the border was open and economic hardship, tens of thousands of Moroccans crossed or swam into Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast, triggering a crisis resonating across Europe.
- The Moroccan Association of Human Rights reported Friday that 111 people remain in pretrial detention on charges including mass rebellion and assaulting public officials; drivers appeared Monday without defense representation due to a nationwide lawyers' strike.
- Labor unions condemned the sentences as "shocking and harsh," arguing no official restrictions on passenger transport were issued; Ali Younes, secretary general of the Tetouan branch of the national taxi union, stated drivers were punished for providing a public service.
- Europol announced on Friday that an international police operation dismantled a major criminal network involved in trafficking migrants, drugs and weapons across the Western Mediterranean, resulting in 78 arrests in Spain and Algeria in June.
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22 Articles
Diario de Cádiz
The government has had the ability, and the nerve, to turn the crisis of the invasion into an episode of irregular immigration quickly re-emerged into a humanitarian crisis from which only hideouts and malaise remain in Ceuta. And it has gone on vacation leaving all the questions unanswered.
After the arrival of the Spanish exclave, human rights organizations number at least 140 dead. Morocco punishes taxi drivers for trips to the border to Ceuta.
The taxi drivers were found guilty of "facilitating the illegal departure of Moroccans and foreigners" and "promoting passengers without a license." A union clearly criticizes the verdicts.
This is the first sentence in Morocco since more than 70,000 people crossed into the Spanish exclave in North Africa in just a few days.
A ‘harsh’ first ruling in Morocco after Ceuta surge with 7 taxi
CASABLANCA, Morocco: Seven Moroccan taxi drivers were sentenced to up to six months in prison and fined $1,070 each for aiding irregular migration by driving people to the Spanish border in Ceuta. It marked the first ruling in Morocco tied to the surge of more than 70,000 people crossing into the tiny Spanish North African territory over the past week.
The case of the migration crisis in Ceuta is involved in various doubts and much speculation. The mode of operation – social networks whose domains have disappeared in the meantime – raises all doubts, in particular about the author, or the authors, and their intentions. See the analysis of Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa.
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