Ramón Caudevila, from Ceuta, has been the longest-serving head of Immigration in Spain, since he took office back in his city in 1994, until his retirement last January, at the age of 65. He has seen it all, and he tells EL MUNDO. He is pessimistic. He believes that immigration is "a huge business" for Morocco, and that the Government is "reacting very slowly, much more than in 2021, for reasons that only they know." The first major crisis he experienced was in 2014, and that took place, he says, "due to something very personal about the Moroccan king, which became a huge problem for Spain."
What happened?
A yacht was passing, with several jet skis behind it, through Spanish waters. The Civil Guard went and it was found that he was the king of Morocco. Which was very kind, but the next day the gates of hell opened and everything that floated went to Spain. Only sub-Saharans, yes.
Can even that level of whim determine something so serious?
Of course. And the PP was in the Government, but they don't care about the PP or the PSOE. Well, they took the brave Perejil, but they were harshly answered and I don't think they will try it again.
You've seen it all since 30 years here.
A little more than 30. I arrived in '94, and shortly after I went to the pre-Ucrif [Unit Against Immigration Networks and Documentary Falsehoods, framed in the General Immigration Commission]. In 2020 I was made head of the brigade. Always in what this is: Europe's trench in immigration. A tough time, really. This has always been a jungle.
In recent years...
...We have not had the support of the Government, to put it mildly. Those who jump or swim have been encouraged to use the asylum. In the spring of 2021, Moroccans did not ask for asylum, because they knew it did not work. Now they are going to ask for it, and they know that it can work for them.
Explain that.
Now each request goes through an inter-ministerial commission that slows everything down, and when 31 days pass after the request, the illegals have the right to go to the Peninsula, and there you can no longer control them. It is a government-sponsored stunt that facilitates covert illegal immigration. The commission meets every 40 days. When asylum is denied, the person is already free on the Peninsula, and give him a greyhound. They know it's like that, but they don't do anything. This works like this.
How many of the 10,000 who have remained from this jump will ultimately have the right to asylum?
Just some sub-Saharans, not many. But the blockage that the Moroccans will make will be enormous. The asylum is a fad they have learned, word of mouth works very well there. And Morocco welcomes these jumpers, but it does not want the regulars, those who want to return once they have settled abroad.
As?
He tells you no, you can keep them.
Because?
What is the highest income that Morocco has? Remittances from emigrants, what they send. The thing is that people know little about all this, beyond the screams. Do you know how sub-Saharans enter Morocco? Walking? No, by plane. Why do you think?
No idea.
What is the fastest growing airline in the world? Air Maroc. Who is its owner? The king. They, by giving a visa to sub-Saharans, stop it. But they are not interested.
Because...
Because immigration, being a transit area to Europe, is big business for Morocco and its authorities. They are the catwalk. That's worth a lot.
The economic factor.
It is not seen from Europe, but it is key. I'll give you another example. The menas. In 2003 I had a lot of confidence with a Moroccan commissioner, we had dinner and talked, a friendly and professional exchange. At that time minors began to appear in the boats. I asked him. He told me: "It's very simple. If an adult passes by and you stop him, 6,000 euros he has invested and lost. But you are not going to give it back to a minor. And when he turns 18 in Spain, he is given residency and a work permit. And he asks for family reunification: five people on average." But it doesn't end there. Her older sister, who is married, takes her family too...
And it branches out.
Exponentially. From one minor you legalize 25 or 30 people in four or five years. The best investment for Morocco is a mena. 90% are sent by the families themselves. The mena tirao, the one on the street, you notice it right away. The rest are sent by the families. And the adult the same. As soon as it is legalized, it brings everyone together.
But behind this being possible there are political decisions.
All governments talk about ordering immigration. Okay. Well look how easy. That everyone who jumps to Spain and regularizes, either cannot regroup in 10 years, or that quotas are made: 20,000 a year. And whoever enters legally, can regroup from the beginning.
How many enter legally?
Many. Fruit pickers, workers, for many things... This can be perfectly regulated, but it is not wanted.
What did you think on July 30, when the boarding occurred?
Days before, swimmers were seen constantly, all the time, crossing the border. You can see it from my house, I live on the sixth floor. On the same July 29, one day before, the Moroccan patrol boat enters Spanish waters and begins to pick up immigrants and return them to its side, and the Spanish one too. There were hundreds. Spain had to see it the same as I saw it, because, I repeat, their patrol boat entered Spanish waters.
Then you had to know.
Nobody can say that they didn't know. In the previous week 1,500 had entered. That the Moroccan patrol boat entered 300 meters from our shore, invading our waters, eh?
So why did it happen?
These are political issues that I cannot get into. We talk about [social] networks, okay. But who manages the networks? And from 30 to today not a single one has entered. With that everything is clear. In the spring of 2021, a video became very popular, one that I made myself at the border: you could see the gendarme opening the gate and putting people through the door. The civil guards defended the border as best they could, and they opened it. Morocco, if left to its own devices...
And why does this Government tolerate that?
I shouldn't answer that. But with Perejil the limit was set, and that's where it remains. As an example, I say it.
Is this going to last long?
I can't know, but if any of the arrivals get asylum in the end it will be the sub-Saharans, although now they don't ask for asylum as much either, because European countries are already beginning to return asylum seekers to each other, and their intention is always to go further north than Spain. Germany, for example, has said that it will return asylum seekers to Italy and Greece.
And doesn't that violate Schengen?
No, asylum is parallel to Schengen. This thing about returning them to the country that gave them asylum has always existed in the law, but it was not done. Now, since there is so much immigration...
Europe has told Spain that these do not go to the Peninsula.
Because Ministers Albares and Marlaska have said it before. They said it, and Europe tells them: "Okay, then it complies." But be careful, European regulations do allow returning ores, and realize that many of these are. It hasn't been done until now. Let's see if they do it or not.
And why hasn't it been done?
This is going to seem curious. It has not been done in part because the judges here required, by regulations, to return the minors not to Morocco, but to their parents in Morocco. And then Morocco said no, that they had to be returned to their authorities. Note the nuance.
Are you worried that Ceuta will become a legal limbo where Spain deposits its excess immigrants, a kind of what Albania is for Italy?
The Moroccans, in one way or another, are going to return to their country, but the sub-Saharans could be left in limbo, because I have serious doubts that Morocco will accept them back. That, that he accepts them back, I have not seen in all these years. There were about thirty who jumped years ago and were admitted back, but usually they are not admitted. France, for example, punished Morocco for not taking sub-Saharans back, reducing visas by half for Moroccans who wanted to travel to France. But the Moroccans didn't care.
As a Ceutí: to what extent can this deteriorate the city?
I want to think it's temporary. The solution is not going to be quick. Ceuta women and girls are afraid. In 2021 it was resolved quickly, but now there are no signs, really. There doesn't seem to be a will.
It is also true that, with so many people on the streets, about 10,000 people, without food or with very little... Things are not happening, there are not major crime problems. Do you see it like that?
Let time pass. Everyone who has jumped has come with some money. When they run out, and they can't buy their loaf of bread and recharge their phones... We'll see. They are going to have to survive, and survival... It is true that in this leap there have been quite a few middle class people, a little almost upper-middle class. Some on flats, even. Those are the first to come back. You can still see some, but what remains is the lower and very low middle class. Those are going to cause problems. They are the most desperate.
And why is the Government reacting so slowly?
The thing is that the Army could have set everything up very quickly, in hours, and it is taking days... They have reacted very late, and things are being done late.
Because?
I think it's deliberate: they hope that they keep coming back on their feet and that the problem dissipates further on its own. And I think they are wrong, because those who have not returned are not going to return. And the 10,000 that are there, are there.
