MADRID, July 30 (Reuters) – Migrants swarmed into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, overwhelming police at the city’s breakwater, after swimming over from the Moroccan side, Spain’s Guardia Civil police said.
A Guardia Civil spokesperson said the migrants were “massively entering from the sea” through the Tarajal breakwater, but could not provide any estimates for the numbers.
State television TVE on Thursday reported that 2,000 to 3,000 youths had crossed, while state news agency EFE said some had scaled the border fences without swimming. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm those reports.
Ceuta, together with Melilla — another Spanish autonomous city located in North Africa — represents the European Union’s only land border with Africa. Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe.
Images showed some of the migrants shouting “Long live Spain” as they entered the territory, many of them paddling across from the Moroccan side using inflatable inner tubes and other flotation devices.
Migrant rights activist Zakaria Zarroqui said Thursday’s crossing was similar to one that occurred in May 2021, when some 10,000 Moroccan and sub-Saharan youths entered the enclave in days.
“The situation remains out of control as we speak,” Zarroqui said, adding that people were still flocking to the Moroccan city of Fnideq in an attempt to cross into Ceuta.
SUPREME COURT RULING
Earlier this month, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot be summarily returned under the enclaves’ special border-rejection regime.
“It has been a slow trickle since the Supreme Court’s ruling, but today has been an explosion,” the Guardia Civil spokesperson told Reuters.
Earlier on Thursday, Ceuta leader Juan Jesus Vivas urged the national government to declare an emergency over the mass arrivals.
Ceuta’s regional government requested that Madrid deploy the army to guarantee safety and close the border with Morocco, in a message on X.
The Interior Ministry said it was working closely with Morocco to address the surge in irregular arrivals, blaming people-smuggling networks for exploiting the Supreme Court’s ruling to encourage undocumented migration.
Morocco’s Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The mass crossing coincided with the arrival of more than 1,500 migrants swimming into the city over the past week, according to regional authorities.
(Reporting by David Latona, Emma Pinedo, Ahmed El Jechtimi, Victoria Waldersee and Corina Pons; Editing by Alex Richardson and Sharon Singleton)
