The EU yesterday scrambled to contain one of the largest migrant crises faced by the block in recent years, after tens of thousands of people poured into Spain’s exclave in north Africa in just days.
About 60,000 migrants have crossed into the territory from Morocco, Ceuta Mayor-President Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters.
Many swam around a small border barrier that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, with 34 people dying in the attempt.
Photo: AP
Madrid has sent troops, more police, including divers, drones and boats, to boost security in Ceuta. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska rushed to the exclave.
About 25,000 people who had crossed had voluntarily returned to Morocco, Grande-Marlaska said.
Reporters saw hundreds of people — men, women and children — entering Ceuta, discarding flotation rings and clothes used in the risky passage.
Photo: AP
Yesterday, hundreds of migrants, mostly young men, were hanging around on the Morocco side of the border while others were seen turning back, saying: “There are too many people here.”
“It’s catastrophic,” said Mohammed, a local taxi driver and Ceuta resident. “Sure, we sympathize with them — they’re having a terrible time in their own country, and all that — but this isn’t the way to enter a place, nor is it a way to live.”
It was not immediately clear what prompted the surge of migrants from Morocco. Some previous surges have occurred during tensions between Spain and Morocco.
Sanchez visited Algiers on Monday last week — the first such visit by a Spanish head of government in four years — marking a thaw in relations with Morocco’s rival, but it was not clear if this visit was related to the influx.
Sanchez, in Ceuta, blamed the sudden inflow on people-traffickers spreading rumors about a Spanish Supreme Court ruling this month that irregular migrants arriving by sea cannot be immediately returned.
“What has emerged from our talks with Moroccan authorities is that trafficking mafias took a self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling,” he said.
That interpretation “spread like wildfire in recent hours,” he said.
Scenes of the crowds of people surging into a member of the EU sparked a diplomatic fallout.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on social media, called the scenes at Ceuta “unacceptable.”
“We cannot allow anyone to come to our Union without abiding by our rules,” she said.
Italy on Thursday called for Spain to be suspended from Europe’s open-borders Schengen zone, prompting Spain to summon Italy’s ambassador and accuse Rome of using the crisis for political gain.
Finland and Denmark yesterday backed Italy’s call, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz demanded that Morocco “take back illegal migrants immediately.”
France and Britain said they stood ready to help Spain with the sudden surge — but France also said it was tightening its border checks with Spain.
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