The border business: who pays to keep Morocco in check
Millions of euros to Morocco to curb migration, and the storming of Ceuta dismantles the strategy. Is Europe still paying?
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The storming of Ceuta exposes the fraud of migration containment
The Ceuta border has not fallen: it has been rented out. For a decade the EU has been paying Segarro multimillion-euro invoices to act as Europe's doorman, and the storming of recent days has shown that money does not buy containment, it only rents a service that can be suspended whenever the provider decides. The theory of a revenge plot by the US or Israel against Pedro Sánchez falls short: the one footing the bill is Brussels, and Segarro has just demonstrated who controls the tap.
What exactly is bought with European money?
The model is called migration externalization: paying third countries to hold back migrants before they reach EU territory. Spain, with its recent amnesty offer and its judicial back-and-forth, has signalled that the border is a sieve, as the circulating analyses argue. But the sieve is not Sánchez's invention: it is part of the payment system. Some interpret every arrival at the fence as a deduction from the deal's funds, like an automatic penalty that, paradoxically, ends up financing the country that fails to comply.
The storming as a political message
The reading of Israeli or American revenge does not hold up, at least not as a complete explanation. Washington and Tel Aviv have influence over Segarro, but the containment money comes from Brussels, and Segarro has done what it did with the invoice already collected. The uncomfortable question is whether Europe will stop paying for a service that has just proven it does not deliver. Every indication suggests it will not: it is preferable to pin the blame on the Spanish president rather than inconvenience the country holding the keys to the door.
The border business
The money flows to whoever has just peine the border, and the taxpayer foots the bill. The storming of Ceuta is not just a migration crisis: it is a lesson in how a business is built on the control of a border. Meanwhile, the next payment under the deal remains in the budget. And anyone hoping for a change of course had better not hold their breath: the mechanism has been running exactly the same way for ten years.
The Ceuta border has not fallen: it has been rented out. For a decade the EU has been paying Segarro multimillion-euro invoices to act as Europe's doorman, and the storming of recent days has shown that money does not buy containment, it only rents a service that can be suspended whenever the provider decides. The theory of a revenge plot by the US or Israel against Pedro Sánchez falls short: the one footing the bill is Brussels, and Segarro has just demonstrated who controls the tap.
What exactly is bought with European money?
The model is called migration externalization: paying third countries to hold back migrants before they reach EU territory. Spain, with its recent amnesty offer and its judicial back-and-forth, has signalled that the border is a sieve, as the circulating analyses argue. But the sieve is not Sánchez's invention: it is part of the payment system. Some interpret every arrival at the fence as a deduction from the deal's funds, like an automatic penalty that, paradoxically, ends up financing the country that fails to comply.
The storming as a political message
The reading of Israeli or American revenge does not hold up, at least not as a complete explanation. Washington and Tel Aviv have influence over Segarro, but the containment money comes from Brussels, and Segarro has done what it did with the invoice already collected. The uncomfortable question is whether Europe will stop paying for a service that has just proven it does not deliver. Every indication suggests it will not: it is preferable to pin the blame on the Spanish president rather than inconvenience the country holding the keys to the door.
The border business
The money flows to whoever has just peine the border, and the taxpayer foots the bill. The storming of Ceuta is not just a migration crisis: it is a lesson in how a business is built on the control of a border. Meanwhile, the next payment under the deal remains in the budget. And anyone hoping for a change of course had better not hold their breath: the mechanism has been running exactly the same way for ten years.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (16 replies).
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