Frontera Sur: Behind and beyond the fences of Ceuta and Melilla

Abstract

Ceuta, Melilla, and the neighboring Moroccan territories can be imagined as testing grounds where different policies and acts of resistance, spectacles, and economies are assembled, configuring a borderland peculiar for the turbulence of contemporary migrations. Are these enclaves, European outpost in Africa, functioning as places of confinement and buffer zones, as theaters in which to stage the narrative of invasion? Exploring the internal logic of these borderlands is not a matter of looking only at the Great Wall, the most visible sign of the European fortress. It is worth observing the backstage, that is, the routes and informal camps in Morocco, shadow zones where policies against migration act without much regard for human rights. This article is inspired by a visual and filmic ethnography project, based on field encounters with several activists and volunteers (both in Morocco and in Ceuta–Melilla) who support the transit of migrants and asylum seekers.