Food, shelter, beatings: Border city divided over migrants

Residents of Spain’s multiethnic city of Ceuta are used to being in the news every time the fragile alliance between Madrid and Rabat shakes up

CEUTA, Spain -- Residents of Spain's multi-ethnic city of Ceuta are used to being in the news every time the fragile alliance between Spain and Morocco shakes up. For many “Ceutis," as locals are known, that comes with being a speck of a European nation in North Africa. The city is culturally closely intertwined with Morocco, with Muslims making over 40% of its population, but also separated from it by high perimeter fences that set apart the two extremes of poverty and prosperity. But when relations hit a two-decade low this week over Spain's help to one of Morocco's top enemies, “Ceutis" confronted the sudden arrival of thousands of African migrants with sympathy, concern and in some cases hostility. In one neighborhood, Muslim women, moved by the plight of young Moroccan men, gathered in a traditional house to sort out and distribute donated clothes. They also cooked food and offered migrants sleeping in the streets a place to shower.