Seven Moroccan taxi drivers were sentenced to up to six months in prison and fined $1,070 each for aiding irregular migration by driving people to the Spanish border in Ceuta. It marked the first ruling in Morocco tied to the surge of more than 70,000 people crossing into the tiny Spanish North African territory over the past week.
Judges in the northern Moroccan city of Tetouan found the taxi drivers guilty of "" and "transporting passengers without a license," after they drove clients to the Moroccan border town of Fnideq, according to excerpts of the ruling on the Justice Ministry website.
The drivers were sentenced on Monday after appearing before prosecutors without defence representation due to a nationwide lawyers’ strike. They retain the right to appeal. One vehicle was confiscated by authorities.
The Moroccan Association of Human Rights said on Friday that 111 people are in pretrial detention following the recent Ceuta events. Charges include mass rebellion, assaulting public officials and obstruction of traffic, it said.
Morocco’s Justice Ministry and the public prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Labour unions, including the national taxi union, condemned the sentences as "shocking and harsh," noting in a statement that "no official decision was issued imposing restrictions on passenger transport".
"Taxi drivers cannot be held responsible for what happened," Ali Younes, secretary general of the Tetouan branch of the national taxi union told The Associated Press. "They were punished simply for providing a public service."
Fueled by false social media rumours that the border was open and economic hardship, tens of thousands of Moroccans crossed or swam into Ceuta, a Spanish city that sits on the North African coast, triggering a crisis resonating across Europe.
Nearly all of the migrants who survived were expelled by Spanish authorities or returned voluntarily, while an estimated 1,000 minors remain, their future uncertain.
Meanwhile, European Union police agency Europol on Friday announced that an international police operation led by Spanish authorities dismantled a major criminal network involved in trafficking migrants, drugs and weapons across the Western Mediterranean. The operation resulted in 78 arrests in Spain and Algeria in June, weeks before the migrant surge into Ceuta.