Thousands of migrants from Morocco swarmed a Spanish beach in the North African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, overwhelming police who tried to stop them, the Guardia Civil said. The region's government pleaded with Madrid to deploy the army and close the Moroccan border, warning of a 'total humanitarian and social emergency'.
State television TVE reported that between 2,000 and 3,000 youths had crossed into Spain by sea, with some reportedly scaling the border fence. Images showed migrants paddling from Morocco into Ceuta using inflatable inner tubes and other flotation devices. Video also captured crowds shouting 'Long live Spain' as they rushed into the territory.
Emergency Declared
The president of Ceuta, Juan Jesus Vivas, said: 'We are in a situation of total humanitarian and social emergency. In the past few days more than 1,500 migrants, both adults and minors, have come to Ceuta by sea. The reception centres are saturated – there is no more room for anyone in them and according to yesterday’s figures the number of people entering is more than 200 a day.'
Ceuta, along with the Spanish city of Melilla, represents the European Union's only land border with Africa. Both regions have faced occasional influxes of migrants attempting to reach Europe. This surge appears to be on a similar scale to one in May 2021, when some 10,000 Moroccan and sub-Saharan youths entered the enclave in days.
Supreme Court Ruling
Spain’s Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot be summarily returned under the enclaves' special border-rejection regime. A Guardia Civil spokesperson told Reuters: 'It has been a slow trickle since the Supreme Court’s ruling, but today has been an explosion.'
Spain’s Interior Ministry said it was working closely with Morocco to address the surge in migrants. They blamed people-smuggling networks for exploiting the Supreme Court’s ruling to encourage undocumented migration.
