IT IS a tiny coastal enclave, part of a foreign state, surrounded by the country that lost it hundreds of years ago.
Very probably. However it’s not Gibraltar but Ceuta, a Spanish possession 17 miles across the Mediterranean from the Rock in Morocco. And Spain has not one but two Gibraltar-like enclaves there, with Melilla 250 miles down the coast in exactly the same position.
Their existence throws into sharp relief the hypocrisy of Madrid, which has capitalised on the invoking of Article 50 to reassert its claim to the territory it ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
The Spanish foreign minister made some condescending remarks about Britain’s loss of composure over the Gibraltar issue on Monday after the former Tory leader Michael Howard said Theresa May would show “the same resolve” as Mrs Thatcher did over the Falklands in defending the freedom of British subjects on the Rock.
The subsequent mission to retake it – code-named Operation Romeo-Sierra – involved a group of commandos from the Spanish equivalent of the SAS, four £10million Eurocopter Cougar helicopters, a 500ft amphibious warship and two patrol boats, plus air cover by F-18 and Mirage F-1 fighters.
GETTY
Perejil was hardly a trophy asset
The move ignited fresh claims by Morocco for sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla and demonstrations were staged on the Moroccan sides of the borders and outside the Spanish embassy in the country’s capital Rabat.
Meanwhile the Moroccan government expressed “strong rejection and clear disapproval” of the “continued and anachronistic colonialism” shown by Spain.
Welsh Ukip leader urges support for Gibraltar’s sovereignty
Then, as now, Madrid refused to budge. Spain’s stewardship of Melilla dates back to 1497 when it was seized from the Kingdom of Fez, five years after the Muslim Moors had been driven out of the Andalucian city of Granada on the Spanish mainland.
Eighty-three years later Spain added Ceuta, which had been seized by Portugal in 1415, after Lisbon and Madrid united under one crown.
GETTY
Ceuta was seized by Portugal in 1415
As a result, both settlements are surrounded by a ring of steel. At Melilla, for example, two parallel metal fences topped with razor wire rise more than 20-feet around the town’s perimeter.
The flood-lit tarmac strip that runs between them is patrolled by members of the Spanish civil guard and monitored by 106 video cameras, motion detectors and microphones.
REUTERS
1 of 9
Gibraltar has its own political system that makes many decisions within the territory but issues like defence and foreign affairs are determined by the UK Government in London
By day an estimated 36,000 Moroccans enter Melilla legally to work, shop or trade goods.
It’s a similar story at Ceuta. Like Gibraltar, Ceuta is a military and naval base, a tax haven, a thriving fishing port and tourist centre.
GETTY
Melilla is smaller than its sister enclave
Meanwhile Melilla is smaller than its sister enclave at 4.7 square miles but has an almost identical population. Just as the Spanish would not dream of abandoning their fellow citizens on the northern coast of Africa, so the British Government will never desert the residents of Gibraltar.
The fact that Madrid refuses to accept the parallels between these two positions makes it either mad or bad.
