Spain: King Felipe’s visit to Ceuta carries a high diplomatic risk

Madrid, October 1 (ATSH-AFP) – Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will go on October 13 to Ceuta, on a visit carrying a high diplomatic risk, two and a half months after the migration crisis that occurred in this Spanish enclave in North Africa, whose sovereignty Morocco claims.

This visit, which will take place a day after Spain’s National Day, on October 12, will be followed the next day by a visit some 500 kilometres further east, to Melilla. It will be his first visit to these two cities since ascending the throne in 2014.

It was his father, Juan Carlos, who carried out the last visit by a Spanish sovereign to Ceuta and Melilla, in November 2007. That visit had at the time caused a diplomatic crisis with Morocco, which claims sovereignty over these two territories of a few square kilometres.

“This unprecedented visit by Felipe VI has been agreed between the government and the royal household”, the latter explained in a message, stating that the exact programme of the visit will be announced in the coming days.

On July 30 and 31, more than 70,000 migrants entered Ceuta, swimming or on foot from Morocco, in a massive and unprecedented influx, during which more than a hundred of them lost their lives, mainly at sea, according to the authorities in Madrid and Rabat. Since then, the overwhelming majority of these migrants have returned to Morocco.

However, several thousand of them have remained in Ceuta, where the situation has since deteriorated, causing acts of violence and almost daily protests by residents.