CEUTA: A Moroccan boy who used empty plastic bottles to swim to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta this week said he would rather die than go back to Morocco.
The boy told so to the Spanish soldier who translated for him before he was escorted away.
The boy attracted international media attention as he floated in a dark T-shirt with the bottles under his clothes and attached to his arms, crying as he reached the beach only to be led away by soldiers.
“He didn’t want to go back, he didn’t have any family in Morocco, he didn’t care if he died from cold; He preferred to die ... than go back to Morocco,” soldier Rachid Mohamed al Messaoui said.
“I never heard that from someone so young,” the 25-year-old told Reuters, speaking on the beach.
Soldiers accompanied the crying boy through the gate to the security zone between the two countries, along with other migrants. An army spokesman in Ceuta said he had no information on what happened to the boy.
Deporting minors is illegal in Spain and hundreds have been processed in a makeshift reception center in Ceuta.
The boy was one of some 8,000 migrants who swam or climbed over a border fence into the enclave this week after Rabat relaxed border controls. Spain has deployed troops to Ceuta to patrol the border with Morocco and called the situation a crisis for Europe.
On the northern tip of Morocco across from Gibraltar and with a population of 80,000, the enclave’s beaches are only a few hundred meters (yards) away.
Al Messaoui, who speaks Moroccan Arabic, or Darija, said he tried to put his feelings to one side to help calm those arriving on the beach, acting as a translator for his Spanish army colleagues.
“You feel frustrated, desperate that you can’t do more for that boy,” he said.
Asked what he would tell the parents of young Moroccans eager to cross over to Ceuta, he said: “Not to let them go, to be with them, and to be united as a family even if there are difficulties of life in their country... not to let them drift away alone, desperate, helpless.”
I’d rather die than go back, Moroccan migrant boy tells Spanish soldier
https://arab.news/r2ucv
I’d rather die than go back, Moroccan migrant boy tells Spanish soldier
- The boy floated in a dark T-shirt with bottles under his clothes and attached to his arms
- Soldier Rachid Mohamed al Messaoui said the boy told him ‘he didn't care if he died from cold’
US Justice Department official eyes cases against Cuba leaders as Trump floats ‘friendly takeover’
- “Working group” formed to build cases against people connected to the Cuban government
- Trump’s has increasingly displayed aggressive stance against Cuba’s communist leadership
MIAMI: The top Justice Department prosecutor in Miami is considering criminal investigations of Cuban government officials, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry comes as President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of a “friendly takeover” of the communist-run island.
Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, has created a “working group” that includes federal prosecutors and officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies to try to build cases against people connected to the Cuban government and its Communist Party, according to one of the people. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the effort.
It was not immediately clear which Cuban officials the office is targeting or what criminal charges prosecutors may be looking to bring.
The Justice Department said in a statement Friday that “federal prosecutors from across the country work every day to pursue justice, which includes efforts to combat transnational crime.”
The effort is taking place against the backdrop of Trump’s increasingly aggressive stance against Cuba’s communist leadership.
Emboldened by the US capture of Cuba’s close ally, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump last month said his administration was in high-level talks with officials in Havana to pursue “a friendly takeover” of the country. He repeated those claims this week, saying his attention would turn back to Cuba once the war with Iran winds down.
“They want to make a deal so bad,” Trump said of Cuba’s leadership.
While Cuba has faded from Washington’s radar as a major national security threat in recent decades, it remains a priority in the US Attorney’s office in Miami, whose political, economic and cultural life is dominated by Cuban-American exiles.
The FBI field office has a dedicated Cuba group that in 2024 was instrumental in the arrest of former US Ambassador Victor Manuel Rocha on charges of serving as a secret agent of Cuba stretching back to the 1970s.
In recent weeks, several Miami Republicans, in addition to Florida Sen. Rick Scott, have called on the Trump administration to reopen its criminal investigation into the 1996 shootdown of four planes operated by anti-communist exiles.
In a letter to Trump on Feb. 13, lawmakers including Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez highlighted decades-old news reports indicating that former President Raúl Castro — the head of Cuba’s military at the time — gave the order to shoot down the unarmed Cessna aircraft.
“We believe unequivocally that Raúl Castro is responsible for this heinous crime,” lawmakers wrote. “It is time for him to be brought to justice.”
While no indictment against Castro has been announced, Florida’s attorney general said this week that he would open a state-level investigation into the crime.
The Trump administration has also accused Cuba of not cooperating with American counterterrorism efforts, adding it alongside North Korea and Iran to a select few nations the US considers state sponsors of terrorism.
The designation stems from Cuba’s harboring of US fugitives and its refusal to extradite several Colombian rebel leaders while they were engaged in peace talks with the South American nation.
