{"text":[[{"start":10.62,"text":"Spain’s police on Wednesday denied that their investigators had blamed Morocco for a surge of migrants into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta this summer after the claims worsened tense relations between the countries."}],[{"start":23.76,"text":"Spain has insisted for weeks that Morocco played no part in the July rush of more than 70,000 people into its exclave on the north African coast, but Madrid’s position was undercut by a newspaper report claiming a police probe blamed Morocco’s security force for orchestrating the influx."}],[{"start":40.46,"text":"The rush of people from Morocco into Ceuta on July 30 was the EU’s most dramatic episode of illegal border crossings in recent years and reopened the bloc’s deep divisions over immigration policy."}],[{"start":52,"text":"According to the El Español newspaper, Spanish police concluded that the influx was overseen by Moroccan security agents and “designed to overwhelm the border-control system and eliminate Spain’s capacity to respond”."}],[{"start":65.28,"text":"After Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, demanded an explanation, the ministry said Francisco Pardo, director-general of Spanish police, had responded that “there is no police report attributing to the Moroccan security forces the planning or execution of what occurred in Ceuta on July 30 and 31”."}],[{"start":85.2,"text":"The ministry said a judge had ordered police investigators not to provide their superiors with any information about the probe reported by El Español, meaning the police chief had no prior knowledge of it."}],[{"start":96.76,"text":"The ministry did not provide any information about the contents of the investigation report or seek to rebut any specific details."}],[{"start":104.88,"text":"Spain has repeatedly blamed the influx on human traffickers and misinformation spread on social media. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned it as “an attack on Spain’s territorial integrity”, but on Monday he said he did not “see any information” to suggest Morocco played a role in it. Sánchez accused Russia and Israel of using social media to stoke discord over the episode after it began."}],[{"start":129.76,"text":"Morocco has denied any role in planning or facilitating the surge of migrants."}],[{"start":134.2,"text":"Lahcen Haddad, a Moroccan lawmaker, said: “A hypothesis, however serious, should not be reported as an established fact — particularly when Morocco subsequently co-operated in the rapid return of tens of thousands of people.”"}],[{"start":147.72,"text":"A first wave of migrants who swam to Ceuta before 11am on July 30 were men aged between 15 and 25, equipped with wetsuits, flippers and various flotation devices, according to El Español’s account of the police probe."}],[{"start":162.64,"text":"Their role was to swamp Spain’s border defences. Thereafter, with Spain unable to respond, women, children and entire families with no specialist swimming equipment began arriving in Ceuta."}],[{"start":175.16,"text":"Although the vast majority of migrants who entered Ceuta returned within 48 hours, about 5,000 are still living rough in the territory, stoking tensions and conflict with the exclave’s 83,000 residents."}],[{"start":188.44,"text":"Rachid El Khalfi, Morocco’s interior ministry spokesperson, said on August 3 that misleading information on social media and exploitation by human trafficking networks were behind the mass movement of migrants into Ceuta."}],[{"start":201.48,"text":"He added that misinterpretations of a Spanish Supreme Court ruling in early July had created “the false impression that entry into the European area could be achieved easily and without legal consequences”."}],[{"start":213.08,"text":"Additional reporting by Carmen Muela in Madrid"}],[{"start":220.56,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1788396543_6194.mp3"}