The Strait of Gibraltar separates two continents, Europe and Africa. It’s a required passage between the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea. Around 100,000 vessels go through this international maritime passage every year.
In between Spain and Morocco
image by Anarkangel [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
At the north of the strait, in Europe, there is Spain ; on the other side, in Africa, there is Morocco. Well, this in fact is the short story because on the Spanish side, there also is the United Kingdom that owns a piece of land called Gibraltar (hence the Strait) and on the Moroccan side, Spain has left little pieces of her, mainly the autonomous towns of Ceuta and Melilla.
Gibraltar
The Gibraltarians are 30,000. They live on 2.6 squared miles.
It’s in 1704 that the English and the Dutch conquered this territory that was later ceded to the United Kingdom in 1713. Since then, in two referundums of 1967 and 2002, the Gibraltarians have overwhelmingly refused to (re)become Spanish. However, Brexit has occurred since then and in Gibraltar, when they voted at the same time as their British fellow citizens, they were 95% to vote against the Brexit, so as to stay in the European Union. Will the Gibraltarians accept the Brexit or will they ask to become Spanish so as to stay in the European Union ? A case to be followed …
Ceuta
Ceuta, like Melilla, is an autonomous Spanish town. It has 80,000 inhabitants and 7,1 squared miles. It’s managed by a Mayor-President (the same since 2001).
Although it is part of Spanish territory since 1580, Morocco claims that this town should come back to them through “decolonization”. Of course, Spain doesn’t agree …
Spanish Ceuta on the African continent
image by Anarkangel [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Migratory pressures from Africa to Europe
Ceuta is part of the European Union and, as we still have observed lately, it suffers important migratory pressures from poor African populations, notably subsaharian ones. Spanish media regularly speak about the entry in Ceuta of illegal immigrants over the double barbed-wire, six-meter-high fence.
Distance from Gibraltar to Ceuta
And let’s finish this little article on a nice piece of info that you will remember for ever : the distance as the crow flies between Gibraltar and Ceuta (I know you’re not crows, but you have imagination and the view is beautiful, isn’t it ?) is a little more than 17 miles !
The Strait of Gibraltar in 2007
© Vertounoir / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA 4.0
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