Vox has referred to the influx of migrants as an вЂњinvasion,вЂќ but the term has been also used by some conservatives, including the autonomous cityвЂ™s president, Juan JesГєs Vivas. That has fueled anti-Moroccan sentiment in Ceuta, a feeling tapped into by SpainвЂ™s new far-right party Vox, which became the cityвЂ™s most popular party in SpainвЂ™s 2019 vote. With the border closed, over 30,000 workers who used to commute across it daily have been jobless for much of the past year.Д®ven before the pandemic hit, nationalist voices in Rabat were reviving old claims on Ceuta and Melilla, SpainвЂ™s second coastal enclave in North Africa. While per capita GDP in 2019 was $30,000 on the Spanish side, it drops to $3,200 across the border, according to the World Bank.Д«ut the bustling businesses of SpainвЂ™s Ceuta and Fnideq, the closest Moroccan town, have taken a big hit during the pandemic.

It was a reminder of the sheer inequality between the two sides. The arrival of 8,000 migrants in just 48 hours in a city of 85,000 was more than the result of strained relations between allies.

One migrant was taken to hospital after the beating, said Fouad, who declined to give his last name for fear of reprisal and deportation. They beat him and others with a stick, used pepper spray on him and took his phone and money. Several migrants spoke of attacks by groups of locals at night as they slept in the streets or fields.ДЇouad, an Algerian man who was in Morocco and crossed into Ceuta earlier this week, said armed men woke him up pointing a gun at him. They have questions, they want information.вЂќД«ut the solidarity has not been unanimous. вЂњThe boys are very confused, very scared, I talk to them and they ask for food,вЂќ Ben Chalout said, adding that her neighbors were also opening their doors to offer a place to sleep and eat.

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