Estimated 60,000 migrants cross from Morocco into Spanish territory: What we know
The influx of asylum seekers has left Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez grappling with the country’s worst migration crisis in years.
Authorities in Spain's North African territory of Ceuta have been overwhelmed after an estimated 60,000 migrants entered via land and sea from Morocco.
Ceuta is an autonomous Spanish city on the North African coast, bordering north Morocco and lying next to the Strait of Gibraltar. The 60,000 figure is equivalent to 70% of the city's population.
What happened: At least 41 people died while trying to reach the territory over the last 24 hours, Ceuta Mayor Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters on Friday.
Social media footage shows large groups of people, many of them young men, crossing the border fence between Morocco and Ceuta, an exclave long seen as a gateway for migrants looking for a better life in Europe.
Migration centers in the exclave have been overwhelmed, and the city’s streets are crowded with people. More migrants continue to swim ashore while others, including unaccompanied children, were left sleeping in parks and on sidewalks.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said that around 25,000 migrants had been returned from Ceuta to Morocco so far on Friday and thousands more are expected to go back later today. It also announced that the Spanish government would send troops to bolster security in Ceuta.
In an interview on local radio station Cadena SER, Vivas said it was “a situation of absolute humanitarian and social emergency,” imploring the exclave be placed under a state of emergency.
The Moroccan government has been asking its citizens who crossed the border to return home, and Rabat agreed with Madrid to work together to return all the people who crossed into Ceuta.
Why it matters: The influx of asylum seekers has left Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez grappling with the country’s worst migration crisis in years.
The surge in crossings comes after a June 29 Spanish Supreme Court ruling that migrants stopped at sea while trying to reach Ceuta or Melilla, another exclave on the African continent, cannot be summarily returned to Morocco without due process.
Sanchez accused human trafficking gangs of exploiting the ruling.
Upon arriving at the exclave on Friday, Sanchez said, “What has emerged from our talks with Moroccan authorities is that trafficking mafias took a self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling.” That interpretation "spread like wildfire in recent hours," he added, vowing to return the migrants to Morocco.
Irregular migration has been a controversial subject across Europe for decades, seen by some lawmakers as a threat to national sovereignty and a security concern, as well as a heavy economic burden. The issue has caused deep disagreement across European Union countries over how to handle the crisis and share responsibilities.
Over the last few decades, Spain has built one of Europe’s most liberal and inclusive migration policies, despite most countries on the continent tightening border controls as people try to travel there from Africa and the Middle East.
As recently as last month, under Sanchez’s socialist-led coalition, Spain concluded a significant regularization scheme that attracted more than 1.17 million applications from undocumented migrants living in the country.
Know more: Leaders across Europe reacted on Friday to the crisis at Ceuta. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement, “The images coming from Ceuta are unacceptable.”
“We cannot allow anyone to come to our Union without abiding by our rules. Dangerous crossings must stop immediately. Smuggling networks must be dismantled,” she said, adding that the returns must be “swift.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called the crisis “shocking” and proof that uncontrolled immigration threatens Europe’s security. Italy's Interior Ministry later ordered the closure of the country's sea and air borders with Spain, temporarily suspending the Schengen free movement regime between the two nations.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced that France would unilaterally tighten and reinforce its physical border with Spain.
