Authorities in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta have requested that the government in Madrid deploy the army and declare a national emergency after thousands of people crossed into the tiny territory.
Crowds at Tarajal Beach
Videos shot at Tarajal beach showed crowds of people, mainly Moroccans, walking around the breakwaters and running on the beach and roads. Some shouted “Viva Espana!”
The escalation at the border between Spain and Morocco comes after a surge in migrants attempting to reach the exclave, mainly by swimming. The scenes follow the border crisis of May 2021, when more than 8,000 migrants entered Ceuta in just two days.
Call for National Emergency
Juan Jesus Vivas, head of the Ceuta regional government, called for the national government in Madrid to declare a national emergency on grounds of national security, asking for more police and for the army to be deployed on the border. He said the additional police and soldiers would be necessary “to guarantee the inviolability of the frontier and citizen safety.”
Vivas had warned on Wednesday that migrant reception centers were overwhelmed, with hundreds of people sleeping on the streets.
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