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Here at the border between Ceuta and Morocco, the situation is much calmer than in recent days. According to Spanish authorities, the majority of the at least 60,000 people who crossed irregularly at this point on Thursday have already returned.
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There is still a sporadic but steady stream of people heading back. Most of those returning tell us they entered Spain after receiving social media messages claiming the border was open and that no documentation was required.
Meanwhile, in the city, fear has given way to indignation. Virtually everyone I have spoken to cannot fathom how this situation could have happened and is demanding urgent explanations. It is a tense social atmosphere that is fuelling political debate.
A taxi driver told me:
“I got the feeling that people are very, very angry. I know they’re very angry right now. There are 85,000 of us here, and 60,000 are coming in. So, tell me. What do we do? What are we going to do? We can’t even buy bread. There was no bread. There was nothing. Nothing, nothing. Everything was closed.”
While he was reluctant to attribute blame, some residents were more outspoken. Alluding to the initial legal difficulty of sending the migrants back immediately because they came via the sea, a middle-aged man called PM Pedro Sanchez an “accomplice”, adding: “this is a disgrace— for me, a disgrace. This has never happened before in my life.”
Some Ceutanos do point to a humanitarian duty in connection with the crisis. A 78-year old pensioner told me:
“If there are children there, they need to be given something to drink, they need to be given something to eat. It’s common sense, but that now all of Ceuta, all of Spain—and Spain stands with you—is with you.”
However, the situation as a whole he cannot but condemn:
“This is a state of emergency and a declaration of martial law, just to go shopping at Mercadona? I have to pass a soldier every ten meters away from him ten or twenty meters away from him and feed the troops well and the police. That’s a state of siege, and it’s a of national emergency. There’s no question about it.”
Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, visited the city today, accusing the government of being in thrall to Morocco.
Speaking to the media, Abascal placed the responsibility for what had happened on the government in Rabat and, above all, on Pedro Sánchez himself.
He argued that Morocco acted in the conviction that there would be neither response nor reprisals, because the Spanish prime minister is, in his words, “subservient to the African country”.