M-Moments: The Wall Before The Wall
The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble; and those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
--Psalm 9:9-10
The bus station in Errachidia was crowded that evening, but it wasn’t tourists or families heading north who caught my eye. It was a small group of young men… clothes worn thin, backpacks almost empty, wary of anyone like me taking photos with a cell phone. They had the look I’ve seen too many times before: “trapped.”
When Moroccan authorities round up migrants in the North… at the borders, in the forests near Ceuta and Melilla, or even in the cities… they don’t send them back home. Instead, they bus them south, far south, and drop them in towns like Errachidia. Abandoned, they are left to start over.
I was not expecting it, but that bus station became my classroom last week. It was there, watching exhausted travelers count coins for the next ticket north, that I was reminded again how migration in Northern Morocco works.1 And, why the church must not look away.
The Spanish Side: The Illusion of Safety
We had just spent three days in Melilla. If you can just make it there, like Ceuta, you’re technically on European soil. No dangerous boat across the Mediterranean. No smuggler’s raft. Just a few short miles of fence… or water… separating Africa from Europe.
But “just” is saying a lot. The fences are huge, some as high as 33 feet, featuring double and triple layers topped with razor wire. They are guarded day and night by cameras, police, and their dogs.2 Some migrants used to wait in the nearby forests, watching for an opportunity. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, would rush the fence all at once. Few made it through. Many were injured. Some died.
Some trade the fence for the sea. Many are pulled from the water… only to be sent straight back.
Today, most people don’t even try. The new tactic is to swim. A few brave individuals slip into the surf at night, hoping that currents and fog will hide them. But Spain is aware of this as well. Dozens have been returned as quickly as they arrived. Even large, coordinated efforts, like the crossing two weeks ago by more than a hundred swimmers, end the same way.3 Most are picked up by coastal patrols, leading to detention and ultimately being sent back to Morocco.4
Even those who set foot on a Spanish beach aren’t safe. Migrants tell us how they were bused back across the border in the middle of the night, never given a chance to request asylum. Only the most vulnerable or minors with documents have any hope of staying. And even then, “hope” is a fragile word.
Inside Ceuta and Melilla, reception centers are overwhelmed. Streets are heavily patrolled. Begging is banned. Thousands of migrants may be present, but the residents... and tourists... will seldom see them. They are hidden behind walls.
Very few are ever permitted to travel to the Spanish mainland. This is not accidental. Spain is sending a message: you can touch Europe, but you will not stay.5
The Moroccan Side: Europe’s Partner in Deterrence
But Spain doesn’t carry this burden alone. Much of the work of deterrence begins on the other side of the fence... in Morocco. That’s where Errachidia comes back into focus. Spain and the European Union have paid Morocco hundreds of millions of euros over the years, to be "the wall before the wall."6
Morocco is Europe’s partner in deterrence.
The system operates like this: police raid camps near borders or catch migrants after failed attempts. Phones, IDs, and cash are seized. Then buses move out, dropping migrants far from the coast… in places such as Errachidia, Ouarzazate, Tiznit, or Laayoune. Some are even dropped across Algeria's or Mauritania's borders. The idea is simple: if life is tough enough here, news will spread on social media back home, and others will decide not to come.7
But what seems like an effective plan on paper turns into a harsh reality in people's lives. Some migrants say they have seen the inside of these buses as many as fifteen times. Most no longer bother calling home after each move. They are too ashamed to admit they are starting over again. We have heard these stories for years. It feels different when you're looking into their eyes and praying for God’s grace in their lives.
Some people manage to beg or work for bus fare north. Others just sit, waiting and hoping for help. Many never make it back at all.
It is deterrence through exhaustion: wearing them down until their dreams collapse.
The Ministry Side: God at Work in the Margins
In Melilla, I met the head of the ICU at the local hospital. Each day, he told me, 80 to 90 migrants throw themselves into the sea, desperate to reach European soil. The strongest make it to shore. The weakest... those pulled half-drowned from the sea, bodies cut by razor wire or broken against the rocks... arrive in his unit. “I just try to keep them alive,” he confessed. “Their lives must be so hard to attempt this. I can’t change the system.”
His words lingered with me. When governments focus on walls and fences, ordinary people are left to bind wounds. And yet, isn’t that what the gospel calls us to do? To step in where systems fail, to see the person in front of us, and to remember that every life matters to God.
We’ve met men and women who found Christ along these perilous journeys…through the kindness of believers, through the testimony of another migrant, through the witness of the providential hand of God. In Ceuta and Melilla, in Oujda, Marrakech, and Errachidia, there are small gatherings of Christians… migrant and Moroccan… who choose presence over absence, compassion over fear.
Resources to minister to migrants are stretched thin. A bag of bread, a few dirhams in the hand, a prayer in the bus station… these become sacred offerings. They can’t change government policy. They can’t stop the buses. But they can, and do, remind weary travelers that they are not invisible to God.
This is where the global church must step in. We can pray, offer encouragement, share stories that others prefer to keep hidden, and partner. These frontline churches and ministries need our support. Though small, they shine as steady lights in a shadowed land.
Conclusion
I can still picture the young men in Errachidia, shoulders slumped as they waited for the next bus north. I imagine some would find the strength to try again. Some would not. All of them carried stories far heavier than their backpacks.
That station is more than a stopping place. It is a symbol of a system designed to wear people down. And yet, it is also a reminder that God meets us in the margins. Where governments build fences, Christ builds community. Where systems exhaust, the Spirit restores.
The call is simple: see them, pray for them, and stand with the churches that serve them. Because across North Africa, as in every part of the world, God is present… and He calls us to join Him.
And as Jesus reminds us, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”.
1 M. Augustus Hamilton, "A Beggars Life," M2M3, accessed August 21, 2025. https://m2m3.org/blog/46-a-beggars-life/. See also M. Augustus Hamilton, "To Climb a Fence," M2M3, accessed August 21, 2025. https://m2m3.org/blog/47-to-climb-a-fence/.
2 Hamilton, "To Climb a Fence."
3 Stephen Burgen, "Migrants Swim from Morocco to Ceuta as Officials Say Enclave Is Overwhelmed," The Guardian, last modified 2025–08–12, accessed August 21, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/v86jsacw. See also "Fifty-Four Children Swim from Morocco to Spanish Enclave Ceuta," Reuters, last modified 2025–07–26, accessed August 21, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/f3hns8vv
4 Asylum Information Database, Country Report: Spain (AIDA, 2025), https://tinyurl.com/2ptyhnrd
5 Ibid.
6 Statewatch, "Spanish Government Approves Another 30 Million for Migration Control in Morocco," Statewatch, last modified 2022–10, accessed August 21, 2025. cSee also "Spain Allocates €2.5 Million to Morocco for Migration Control," Morocco World News, last modified 2025–01, accessed August 21, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/2ct7hnk9. And, "Spain and Morocco Renew Ties with Migration, Business Deals," AP News, accessed August 21, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/3shm6wn2
7 Lighthouse Reports, Desert Dumps (Lighthouse Reports, 2024), https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/desert-dumps/. See also, María Martín, "Beni Mellal, Morocco’s City of Exile for Migrants Pushed Back from Europe’s Borders," El País, last modified 2022–08–02, accessed August 21, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/yc872ttm