Living Inbetween - Updates
So, in my previous post, Living Inbetween, I tackled the issue of Ceuta's frontier. It is very tough to remain calm and unbiased when half of your class is unable to attend a course that can effectively lift them out of poverty and illiteracy because of a malfunctioning nation-state frontier. Even more difficult, is to see photos of the actual situation unfolding at the border, as well as the direct result that such heavy blockage is producing. For about six days, the frontier only allowed limited access to Europe. On Tuesday, no non-European passport holder was allowed in. About thirteen thousand people camped by the frontier hoping to get in and get to work. Many were injured - including one of my students, who showed up to class with a black bruise as big as her knee and barely able to walk. Records show that at least four people died throughout the week.
It is nearly impossible to remain unbiased. Especially when after a quick research on the internet I discovered that such death toll isn't exceptional at all, spread unevenly between hopeful asylum seekers and porteadoras (December - August - October). The situation has been repeatedly reported to the relevant UN agencies, yet it doesn't appear to have changed much at all throughout this past year. Residents of Ceuta themselves are appalled by the crystal clear privileges that skin colour and type of passport allow at the frontier - to an extent that it becomes a human rights issue based on institutional xenophobia. That your passport allows for special treatments isn't a notion that many of us are unfamiliar with, whether in the negative or positive sense. However, one matter above all really strikes me.
Ceuta's frontier has battled a situation of heavy mobility pretty much since its inception. Statistics of daily commutes, as well as attempts of illegal crossings, are appalling: there is not a week that goes by without a group of desperate individuals, mainly from sub-Saharan countries, trying to jump over the fence diving continents. By the same token, there isn't a day in which the frontier does not witness the crossing of, on average, seven thousand workers. All in all, one would correctly assume that briefed and trained staff, as well as border policies and behavioural guidelines are already in place to avoid problems and media attention as much as possible. One would assume that Ceuta knows, or at least has a basic idea of how to deal with circumstances that appear so foreign to the rest of Europe.
My question remains - given Ceuta's history of being a city between continents, how is it possible that a frontier gets completely shut down for a whole day, policies are forgotten and basic human rights infringed? It really doesn't make sense. Not even the special circumstances explanation holds up because, as newspapers show, this isn't a una tantum fact. If emergency circumstances and inability to deal with mobility flow aren't possible excuses for such a barely legal shut down - then the explanation really boils down to institutional failure and necessity to routinely assert one's passport superiority over the other.
Example: August 2017, the shut down was excused as an extreme remedy to block the possible entrance of suspected terrorists into European and Spanish territory. The blockage was enacted ten days after the 17/08 attacks in Barcelona. The attacker was traced back as a Moroccan fella that crossed into Spain from Ceuta. Superficially, that was utilised as an excuse to shut the frontier for a good week. If we dig deep into the issue, we realise that A) such blockage after the terrorist event isn't an effective way to counter the likeability of potential terrorists entering Spanish territory; whilst B) indiscriminately treat every individual who tries to cross the frontier as if they were part of ISIS isn't a policy that favours stability and non-extremist sentiments. Does it sound like a good way to handle future extremist stances? To me, it sounds like a recipe for failure. The more we focus on last minutes remedies for superficial symptoms, the more we let the real cause of our disease transform a curable illness into a cancer that we cannot heal.
I am 100% sure I am missing something. However, the lack of information available, as well as the constant repetition of blockages without any apparent legitimate reason to the eye of the wider public aren't measures that effectively enhance convivencia nor lower the risk of religious terrorism. Routine, institutional transparency and the rule of law applied indiscriminately is. But despite the years of experience in being the first gate to Europe, Ceuta's frontier doesn't quite seem to have grasped the concept yet.
It is nearly impossible to remain unbiased. Especially when after a quick research on the internet I discovered that such death toll isn't exceptional at all, spread unevenly between hopeful asylum seekers and porteadoras (December - August - October). The situation has been repeatedly reported to the relevant UN agencies, yet it doesn't appear to have changed much at all throughout this past year. Residents of Ceuta themselves are appalled by the crystal clear privileges that skin colour and type of passport allow at the frontier - to an extent that it becomes a human rights issue based on institutional xenophobia. That your passport allows for special treatments isn't a notion that many of us are unfamiliar with, whether in the negative or positive sense. However, one matter above all really strikes me.
Ceuta's frontier has battled a situation of heavy mobility pretty much since its inception. Statistics of daily commutes, as well as attempts of illegal crossings, are appalling: there is not a week that goes by without a group of desperate individuals, mainly from sub-Saharan countries, trying to jump over the fence diving continents. By the same token, there isn't a day in which the frontier does not witness the crossing of, on average, seven thousand workers. All in all, one would correctly assume that briefed and trained staff, as well as border policies and behavioural guidelines are already in place to avoid problems and media attention as much as possible. One would assume that Ceuta knows, or at least has a basic idea of how to deal with circumstances that appear so foreign to the rest of Europe.
My question remains - given Ceuta's history of being a city between continents, how is it possible that a frontier gets completely shut down for a whole day, policies are forgotten and basic human rights infringed? It really doesn't make sense. Not even the special circumstances explanation holds up because, as newspapers show, this isn't a una tantum fact. If emergency circumstances and inability to deal with mobility flow aren't possible excuses for such a barely legal shut down - then the explanation really boils down to institutional failure and necessity to routinely assert one's passport superiority over the other.
Example: August 2017, the shut down was excused as an extreme remedy to block the possible entrance of suspected terrorists into European and Spanish territory. The blockage was enacted ten days after the 17/08 attacks in Barcelona. The attacker was traced back as a Moroccan fella that crossed into Spain from Ceuta. Superficially, that was utilised as an excuse to shut the frontier for a good week. If we dig deep into the issue, we realise that A) such blockage after the terrorist event isn't an effective way to counter the likeability of potential terrorists entering Spanish territory; whilst B) indiscriminately treat every individual who tries to cross the frontier as if they were part of ISIS isn't a policy that favours stability and non-extremist sentiments. Does it sound like a good way to handle future extremist stances? To me, it sounds like a recipe for failure. The more we focus on last minutes remedies for superficial symptoms, the more we let the real cause of our disease transform a curable illness into a cancer that we cannot heal.
I am 100% sure I am missing something. However, the lack of information available, as well as the constant repetition of blockages without any apparent legitimate reason to the eye of the wider public aren't measures that effectively enhance convivencia nor lower the risk of religious terrorism. Routine, institutional transparency and the rule of law applied indiscriminately is. But despite the years of experience in being the first gate to Europe, Ceuta's frontier doesn't quite seem to have grasped the concept yet.
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