Spanish exclave Ceuta: when the cross-border commuters are stuck

Commuters between Morocco and Spain have been stuck in Ceuta for a year and a half: if they leave the exclave, they can no longer enter due to the pandemic – and lose their jobs. Now many are at the end of their nerves.

Ahmed Nuino cannot look at the photo on his phone without crying. His daughter is sitting there, in a white dress and a veil, and looks a little lost into the camera. Happy wedding photos look different. She got married in September – and Nuino still can’t believe he wasn’t there. “A young woman needs her father on a day like this,” says the 56-year-old pastry chef, crying. “I feel so powerless. Suddenly I realize that I have no rights here at all.” Then he keeps turning sugar roses for the cream cake he’s working on. Somewhere in Ceuta it’s a little girl’s birthday tomorrow, the cake has to be ready by the end of the day.

Pass instead of residence permit

Until the outbreak of the pandemic, there were thousands of commuters like Ahmed in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. “Transfronterizos”, “frontier workers” who crossed the border between two continents on their way to work every day: the one between their place of residence in Morocco and their place of work in Ceuta, the 18 square kilometers of Europe on the North African coast. Cross-border commuters do not have a residence permit, just a kind of pass.

They actually have to go back to Morocco every evening. Exceptions, such as after a particularly long working day, were tacitly tolerated by the Spanish authorities. After all, everyone involved was satisfied with the arrangement for years: the commuters who were able to take home a decent wage by Moroccan standards – and thousands of ceutic entrepreneurs or families who were hardly interested in the hard jobs in elderly care on the Spanish job market found in building cleaning or in construction.

Months became a year and a half

The situation has been different since spring 2020: Corona infections skyrocketed around the world, and the situation threatened to get out of control. On March 13, Morocco and Spain closed the border crossing to Ceuta. Most of the commuters were able to flee the small peninsula, a few hundred stayed. They didn’t want to give up their jobs, says Rachida Jraifi, who acts as a kind of spokeswoman for the “Transfronterizos”. “After all, we feed our families at home with our wages. Besides, we all believed that the ghost would be over after two or three months.”

Two or three months have now turned into a year and a half – and those trapped are at the end of their nerves. Every Monday they demonstrate in front of the representation of the Spanish government in the city center. In silence, with masks over which they have stuck black ribbons crosswise. “We are the invisible ones,” explains Jraifi. “And nobody wants to hear what we have to say: that we are finally calling for humane treatment. Many of us have depression or sleep disorders, have to take pills. We finally want to see our families again!”

Government refers to “corridors” from Ceuta

The cross-border commuters are, however, to blame for their own situation, says Salvadora Mateos, the representative of the Madrid central government. Morocco and Spain have set up a “humanitarian corridor” several times since the outbreak of the pandemic and briefly given cross-border commuters the opportunity to leave Ceuta. If the Moroccans concerned do not want to use this opportunity, the government is powerless.

What the government is hiding: if the commuters leave Ceuta, they will not come back anytime soon – at least in the current situation. For this reason, trade unionists consider the offer to leave the country to be window dressing: after all, the “Transfronterizos” need their jobs – and their employers need them.

Nuino’s boss Rafael Lima can confirm this: he and his wife are old and can no longer run their bakery alone. The traditional company has been family-owned since 1932. They actually wanted to celebrate their 90th anniversary next year. Now their greatest fear is that Ahmed will leave – and then not be able to go back to Ceuta: “If Ahmed doesn’t come back, we’ll close the shop,” he says.

You can see these and other reports in the “Europamagazin” on Sunday, October 10th, 2021 at 12.45 pm on Das Erste.