Spanish authorities have been trying to turn away thousands of people who suddenly tried to enter its territory from Morocco. Migration has been a logistical and political challenge for European leaders for decades. The number of people trying to enter the EU now though appears to be unprecedented. Nathaniel Dove has the latest on why so many people tried at once and what’s going to happen to them.
Tens of thousands of migrants who crossed into Spain’s tiny Ceuta territory returned voluntarily to Morocco on Friday, a day after the influx triggered chaos in the North African city and reignited the immigration debate in Europe and beyond.
At least 57 migrants died on the journey.
Ceuta’s president put the number of migrants at 60,000, which was equivalent to 70% of the territory’s population. But most of them soon went back, the Spanish government said, after the sudden arrival of so many people sparked a humanitarian crisis.
Some migrants swam several miles through the sea and faced down authorities who tried to turn them back with water cannons, tear gas and warning shots. Those who died included some who drowned or were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier near a border checkpoint.
Spain deployed its armed forces and additional police to restore order in Ceuta, which sits on the Strait of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and has been a Spanish possession since 1580. On the Moroccan side of the border, security forces clashed with migrants. The chaos also had ripple effects abroad, with Italy and France pledging to tighten their controls on people arriving from Spain.
“The situation that Ceuta is going through is absolutely unsustainable,” Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas told journalists.
Meanwhile, migrants from Morocco also attempted to cross into Melilla, Spain’s other territory at the tip of North Africa, where they clashed with police.
