♪ >> it is good to have you with us. hello, adrian finighan. a cease-fire is in effect between israel and hamas, aiming to close 11 days of conflict. the egyptian-brokered truce also includes other palestinian factions in gaza. palestinians have been celebrating in gaza. large crowds have been turning out in cities across the occupied west bank. >> we were interested ourselves to see people who had been staying indoors for 11 nights

now deployed in the streets celebrating. hamas also gave a speech of victory, as they describe it, and passed by a residential area destroyed by the israelis, so that was a symbolic celebration and morning by hamas officials. adrian: the u.s. president, joe biden, says this is the first chance for peace. >> we have held intense discussions hour-by-hour, literally, with the name of avoiding the sort of prolonged conflict we have seen in previous years when hostilities have broken out. i believe the palestinians and israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and enjoy

equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and democracy. my administration continued our quiet, relentless diplomacy toward that end. i believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress. i'm committed to working for it. adrian: there were more attacks just before the truce came into force. the conflict has claimed at least 230 three palestinian lives. 12 people have been killed by rockets fired into israel. the united nations general assembly have a special meeting to discuss the crisis. the chief told the general assembly that if there is hell on earth, it is the lives of children in gaza. those are the headlines. more news for you here on al jazeera after today's "inside story" next. ♪

>> an influx of thousands of migrants has caused a diplomatic row between morocco and spain and raised concern about the fate of those streaming in from north africa. why are these people taking this risky route, and how does it affect migration across europe? this is open inside story." -- this is "inside story." hello and welcome to the program. many migrants using dinghies have often made the dangerous journey from morocco into spain, but this week, an influx of at least eight thousand was unusually high, threatening the

humanitarian crisis. many were young men, but there were also families and unaccompanied minors. at least one person died making the crossing. thousands have been expelled by authorities. campaigners worry migrants' rights have been violated in what they describe as a rapid expulsion. police scuffled with people as they tried to force their way into the spanish enclave of seo to. the event has caused a diplomatic route between the countries. we will get to that in a moment, but first, let's hear one boy's story. >> you watch your parents unable to work. the education system is very weak. what can i say? people don't have much to eat. my parents thought that if i came here, i could have a future. i'm cold. all i want is some clothes. i don't have anything. >> why has this become a

flashpoint? it is one of two spanish territories on mainland africa. despite fences and strict policing, thousands attempt to cross every year. the spanish government has accused morocco would be an responsible for the influx of migrants and is threatening to use force to stop people entering. the president of the region called the influx and invasion. morocco has denied that and recalled its ambassador from madrid. it is reported to be angered after spain allowed the head of the polisario front in for medical treatment. morocco continues to claim the enclaves. spain's high court summoned representative over high crimes,

but he refused to acknowledge. let's bring in our guest in brussels. the secretary-general of the european council on refugees and exiles, and in madrid, the lecturer on political science and senior director at the university of madrid, and a strategic affairs analyst and former moroccan minister. more than 8000 migrants arrived on the beaches in just a couple of days. how is this sudden and very large arrival compared to movements of migrants in the past few years and has there ever in the past been an arrival at one time of this magnitude? >> we are seeing similar arrivals in other parts of europe, due to the record numbers of people who are displaced globally. there are more refugees than there have then ever before. there's also people forced to

move. we urge spain and all countries in europe to respect international law when faced with these are arrivals of people, and despite the dramatic scenes, the overall numbers of people arriving are manageable. i think what we see here is the risk of relying on countries outside europe such as morocco or turkey to try to prevent people from coming to europe, and that creates the risk we see in an unrelated incident, as you describe. >> spain's foreign minister has said spain believes morocco loosened its border controls in retaliation for spain having given medical assistance to the polisario front had -- head.

from your vantage point, do you think this was a retaliatory move? >> i think there's more political concerns on morocco's side, beginning with the recognition of the united states . this person in the hospital is just an excuse to overreact. >> morocco had warned of consequences for harboring the men. is this what they meant, and are we hearing more from moroccan officials about all this?

>> i don't think there is an instrumentalization or weaponization of migration on the part of morocco. migration has already -- always existed between the two countries, and there was cooperation between the two, but the fact that it happened in the wake of diplomatic tensions led to speculation like blackmail on the part of morocco, but what is interesting is the moroccan-spanish crisis that existed these last weeks, the spanish have been pretending that they are the victims of crisis, but they should not have done what they had done. admitting someone accused of being a war criminal, being, like, someone who committed genocide kind of crimes, and who

has been at war with morocco, who attacks the -- acts to attack the territorial integrity of morocco -- that is something that is not understandable at all. even the spanish do not understand how the spanish government could do that, and not only do they do that, but they do it with the permission of algeria. he was brought with an algerian passport, and they were expecting the moroccan secret services would not know, so that is a little bit naive, so there was mismanagement on the part of the spanish government, and they have not explained to the moroccans the intelligence of the strategy, why it is politically sound, how you could do that to a partner with whom you have a lot of interest like morocco. i think what happened in terms

of the mass migration just added and exacerbated an already tense diplomatic relation between the spanish and the moroccans, and i think these kinds of things happen, but i believe this happened at this moment, and it is unfortunate, but also i think it does not mean the moroccan government has used -- i have been in the government. i think there is an objective situation in morocco whereby the economic livelihood of a lot of people have been diminished because of the closure of the border, and the second is that the pandemic has also made life difficult there -- >> i'm sorry to interrupt either. let me get back to that point you're making about the pandemic in a couple of moments because i want to follow up. i saw you nodding to some of what he was saying there.

it looked like you wanted to jump in. please go ahead. >> yes, i think it is a complex situation. there are a lot of reasons why people move. many, of course, are due to economic concerns, but also war, conflict, and so on. i think underlying this recent incident is the european strategy of relying on other countries to try to prevent other people coming to europe, and we would suggest instead a longer-term, more nuanced strategy on the part of europe. that would involve, for instance, reopening legal routes for migration so there is not this humanitarian crisis evolving week by week in the mediterranean. that means legal routes for people seeking asylum, but also people who want to come to europe to work, which is much needed. in the last 20 years, we have seen an ever increasing reduction in opportunities for

legal migration to europe, so i think those are ways to deal with this, in addition to a more collective approach that we suggest so the people who arrive are not left alone within europe. i would also add that we cannot ignore the history of all of this. these enclaves exist in africa and as such are rather vulnerable because they are enclaves on another continent. that does not justify action by the government, but it has to be taken into account rather than a sort of knee-jerk reaction, which is simply to build fences to prevent people moving. >> we have been talking about the center of this diplomatic

dispute between spain and morocco. it has been reported spain's high court served him with a june 1 summons for april 11 every hearing in a war crimes case against him, and that this is potentially the first step towards a trial for the polisario front leader. do you think we will see him in a court in spain in the near future? plex i do not anticipate he will appear in court. i think it is just an excuse made by the moroccan government. in march, there was a diplomatic conflict also with germany. they did not open any communication with the german ambassador.

there was bigger negotiation, and we are expecting a sentence coming from the european court of justice, by which the agreement between morocco and the european union will be laid out. that suspicion -- that suspension of the agreement will lead authorities, so we have to reach them to focus and pray the whole situation and bigger picture on sovereignty issues, on geopolitics issues, on trade, and also morocco trying to make change positions on the western it's a horror region by the european union, so i think we

have to analyze it in the whole frame. on the other hand, i totally agree with the issues catherine has mentioned. we are leaving our migration policy in the hands of nondemocratic countries, and this is not the way. we have to change strategy, so we cannot pay off all these black males -- all these black male -- all these blackmails like turkey, because they wanted

to reach political goals. also because a lot of the people crossing used to be working, so they are not very protected. let me do a criticism, and that is with the spanish government is doing -- >> am sorry to interrupt you. let me go over to maxim because i interrupted you before. you were talking about some of the causes from your vantage point and you were starting to talk about the pandemic as one of them. please go ahead. >> just to respond to what ruth has said, there has been a lot of spanish coming to morocco, and because they come legally,

it has not been a problem, so there should be legal solutions to the issue. there is a need for labor in europe. there are many who came after the financial crisis, and because they are there, there are no hurdles for that. she says democratic and nondemocratic countries are different, but i wonder if democratic governments like the spanish government, who hosts a war criminal, that says a lot about what kind of democracy we are talking about here. with regard to black male -- with regard to blackmail, the moroccan government says they want them to be good warriors in the fight against terrorism, for good economic partners, and still, the moroccans probably need to take it easy. at the same time, there is a

need to be silent. otherwise, the spanish will say, "they are blackmailing us. they are using terrorism and migration in order to blackmail us." let's go back to what are the rules of this kind of -- i'm sorry again. i will get right back to you. i saw ruth raise her hand wanting to respond to something you said, sorry wanted to let her go. please just keep it brief. >> yes, just to mention i'm not beneficial from the spanish government, and i probably agree with my colleague here, but this is not the point we are discussing right now. we are discussing why government authorities have opened up the

borders. there has not been any explanation about it from the moroccan government. there is nothing that explains why this agreement with the european union -- this is a border with the european union with a third country, in this case morocco, has not been accomplished. they have opened the gates and let these full tides going to the borders. plex please go ahead if you want to respond. >> we can go back to this point. let's go back to the reasons. one of the reasons, the idea of a fortress europe that has real walls and all of that preventing the people from coming there, i don't think that has borne any kind of fruit. i agree that we need to go into legal issues and allowing this

kind of migration to happen. the second thing is because of the colonial situation, what has been happening is a lot of contraband coming and hurting the moroccan economy. the moroccans have closed the border for economic type interaction. that means a lot of laborers in morocco have been hurt, and the pandemic has added to that. i think these kinds of issues are what needs to be discussed, and i do not think the moroccans have opened the gates. as i said before, moroccans do not have these kinds of gates full of people where they open them, and they swarm. i don't think that is really credible, but this exists in the spanish imagination a lot, that morocco is only their harboring, light, thousands of people, and at any moment, there is a brawl with the spanish, then they let

those go. i do not think that is the situation. i think there is a very important socioeconomic situation that needs to be dealt with. there is a problem of likelihood. there is a problem of perception on the others, and there are also policy problems with regard to europe even when it comes to migration. if these things are not addressed, we will have this kind of situation. >> rights groups have been warning that the fact that these migrants have been returned to morocco as quickly as they have, that could mean that migrant -- migrant rights are being violated. they said there has not been enough time to carry out investigations of individual circumstances, that migrants may not have had a chance to apply for asylum or to make other types of claims. do you believe that what we have seen play out over these past few days, the rapid explosion -- no matter if there is agreement between the two countries -- do

you believe that this rapid explosion of these migrants is a violation of either european law, international human rights law, or refugee law? >> it is possible violations are taking place. we joined the calls expressing concern about the situation. we would underline that people in any eu state or even at the border of any eu member state are under the jurisdiction of that country, which means that eu asylum law applies and also international law under the european convention of human rights, international refugee law, soy situation where people are being collectively expelled without individual assessment is a situation that is illegal under eu and international law. indeed, there's also standards and legal obligations when it comes to the reception of people arriving.

there may be issues concerned with access to asylum and in terms of the treatment of people where states have obligations to respect procedural obligations. these are complex situations because there may be refugees and people with other kinds of statuses, but the way to determine the appropriate path for someone is to do the individual assessment and on that basis, it can be determined if the person has protection needs, as many people arriving in europe do, under the refugee convention or under subsidiary rules. >> i saw you nodding to some of what she was saying, so i will give you a chance to jump in, but i also want to ask -- do we have any idea what is happening to these unaccompanied minors who have arrived in ceuta?

from what i have read, spanish law dictates that these unaccompanied minors must remain in spanish territory until there is further investigation and determination about their status, correct? >> yeah, that is correct. i am totally in agreement. this has been a violation of not just international laws and activities but also a violation of the norms and programs established by the human rights court and also the constitutional court of justice in spain that has made the jurisprudence decision last december that set forth procedures to be accomplished in the way deportations -- and the way deportations are being done on the border right now are

clearly violating those sentences. on the unaccompanied minors, they cannot be deported at all. it is the responsibility of the autonomous region and state to take care of them and give them provisions for taking care and social services, etc., until they are older, 18 years old. we have to see in the next few days have different autonomous communities will be operating the places in their territories because those boys and girls cannot remain in ceuta because there are a lot of them. it is not a possibility to remain. the main problem is that spanish

authorities are not following the rule of law. some of those children have been deported already. we have to follow up and see what happens. on the other hand, there have been some curious movements on the border. i guess our colleague from morocco can tell us about it. a lot of them, they just go out of the border to buy their food. it is kind of suspicious that they were going for an excursion and then going out, but i do not know what is going on with that. maybe our colleague can help us with that. >> we have just run out of time, so we have to leave the discussion there, but i want to thank all of the guests today and thank you, too, for

watching. you can see this program again any time by visiting our website and further discussion is on our facebook page. you can also join the conversation on twitter. for me and the whole team here, goodbye for now. ♪

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