Spain is racing to restore order in its North African enclave of Ceuta after an unprecedented surge of migrants from Morocco left at least 57 people dead and triggered a humanitarian and political crisis.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the mass crossing as ‘a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity’ after as many as 50,000 migrants entered the small enclave within just 24 hours, overwhelming the city of about 85,000 residents.
Mass crossing overwhelms Ceuta
Visiting Ceuta on Friday, Sánchez said the government would deploy every available resource to safeguard the city’s population.
He attributed the mass influx to human trafficking networks, saying they had exploited a recent ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court. The court decided that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Spain’s other North African enclave, Melilla, could not be immediately returned under special procedures.
According to Sánchez, news of the ruling spread rapidly through trafficking networks, leading to the sudden wave of crossings.
To manage the situation, the government will establish a temporary reception centre to handle documentation, registration, triage and the expedited removal of people without a legal right to remain in Spain.
The government also plans to install a visible line of buoys near the Tarajal beach breakwater to clearly mark the border while complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Border security strengthened as EU responds
While the Spanish government estimated that about 50,000 people crossed into Ceuta between Thursday and early Friday, the enclave’s president placed the figure closer to 60,000.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said additional police officers and soldiers had been deployed to the enclave. By 6pm on Friday, more than 48,300 people had voluntarily returned to Morocco.
The latest developments prompted the Irish presidency of the European Union to convene a meeting of member states under the Integrated Political Crisis Response mechanism on Saturday.
EU officials said the meeting would allow member states to discuss the recent arrivals in Ceuta, the number of people who had returned to Morocco, support being provided to Spain and diplomatic engagement with Morocco. A separate meeting of EU ambassadors was also scheduled to take place in Brussels on Monday.
The scale of the latest crossing far exceeded the previous major incident in May 2021, when about 10,000 people entered Ceuta over two days after Morocco relaxed its border controls.
That earlier episode followed tensions between Spain and Morocco over Madrid’s decision to allow the leader of the Polisario Front, the Western Sahara independence movement, to receive Covid-19 treatment in Spain.
The diplomatic dispute eased in 2022 after Spain abandoned its longstanding neutral position and endorsed Morocco’s autonomy proposal for Western Sahara. The policy shift, however, strained Madrid’s ties with Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front.
Relations between Spain and Algeria have since improved, with Sánchez visiting Algiers on 20 July in the first visit by a Spanish prime minister in four years.
Humanitarian concerns grow
Moroccan government sources told Europa Press that criminal organisations were responsible for encouraging the mass crossings and maintained that Morocco’s cooperation with Spain remained exemplary.
Moroccan Ambassador to Spain Karima Benyaich told the Associated Press that Morocco had consistently prioritised legal, orderly and safe migration, adding that the situation had unfolded against Rabat’s wishes.
Meanwhile, Rachid Sbihi, head of a local workers’ association representing officers of Spain’s Guardia Civil, described the situation as a serious humanitarian crisis.
Thousands of migrants, including unaccompanied children, were left without shelter and spent the night sleeping in parks and on pavements, while others wandered through the streets.
Sbihi said many of the 57 victims drowned while attempting the crossing, while others died in a crush near the breakwater fence at Tarajal beach.
Video footage from Thursday showed large crowds walking around the Tarajal breakwaters and onto local roads. Although most were young men, families with women and young children were also among those making the journey.
Ceuta and Melilla are the European Union’s only land borders with Africa and have repeatedly experienced waves of attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe.
