Almost all of the tens of thousands of migrants who entered Spain’s enclave of Ceuta in North Africa had left by Saturday, officials said, as some EU countries bolstered their border controls over the sudden influx.
An estimated 60,000 migrants entered Ceuta over just a few days from neighbouring Morocco, the enclave’s regional president Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters, but by Saturday Spain’s interior minister said almost all had left.
“The situation has been almost entirely reversed,” Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters.
Under the watch of Spanish soldiers and police on Saturday morning, the remaining young migrants continued crossing back over the border to Morocco, AFP journalists saw.
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Any who lingered too long on the coastal path were immediately ushered back out by the soldiers.
To cross into Ceuta, many swam around a small border barrier that juts out into the Mediterranean.
At least 67 people died in the attempt, said Grande-Marlaska providing updated figures Saturday.
“We hope to go to Europe to work and earn a living. That’s it,” Souleye Bodian, 19, a Senegalese migrant told AFP outside a migrant centre in Ceuta where dozens of other sub-Saharan African migrants waited for officials.
“We all know that in Africa there isn’t much opportunity,” he said.
The sudden influx of migrants had sparked political panic in Europe.
‘Adios’
Twenty-two EU countries issued a joint open letter on Saturday calling for a video meeting of the bloc’s interior ministers “as a matter of urgency” to agree a speedy coordinated response, and to “prevent further uncontrolled crossings”.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni then wrote on X: “Defending the external borders of the Union is not the interest of a single Nation. It is a shared responsibility of Europe.”
Italy suspended its Schengen agreement with Spain allowing for visa-free movement between borders as of Saturday for one month.
Several European countries also suggested Spain’s membership in the Schengen free movement zone should be suspended, though the move is virtually impossible in practice.
Sánchez, in a letter to the heads of the European Commission and European Council, blasted the “selfish” reaction by some EU countries. He backed a video meeting of interior ministers.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on X Saturday that the bloc needed “a lessons learned process to improve our European resilience,” while pointing out that “not a single person reached mainland Spain or the rest of the EU” during the influx.
Madrid had rushed security personnel and equipment to the North African outpost that it has run for centuries.
After a night of wandering the beaches and streets of Ceuta or sleeping on the sand, AFP journalists observed Saturday, some young people turned back to say “adios” or “goodbye” to officers before crossing back to Morocco.
More soldiers stood guard on the small beach next to the border fence, positioned under parasols in the morning.
Buoys and flippers still littered the ground along the fence, while others floated in the water.
Spain’s interior ministry said a new pneumatic barrier 500 meters (1,640 feet) in length was installed near the border post to reinforce security.
Madrid protests
This comes as hundreds of anti-migrant protesters rallied outside Morocco’s embassy in Madrid on Friday evening to denounce what they called a migrant “invasion” of Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta.
Several protesters performed Nazi salutes, some openly and without covering their faces.
Local authorities in Ceuta said around 60,000 migrants had entered the enclave in recent days, although the Spanish government said Friday evening that “practically the entirety” of those who crossed had already returned to Morocco.
“Spain, Christian and not Muslim!” and “National unity!” protesters chanted, many dressed entirely in black, an AFP journalist said.
Some demonstrators carried a large banner reading “Remigration” — a term promoted by several far-right groups in Europe that refers to the forced or encouraged return of migrants or people of immigrant background.
Others waved Spain’s red-and-yellow flags and called for the defence of “Spanish identity”.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist government, which has defended a relatively open approach to migration compared with many other European countries, was also targeted by demonstrators.
Protesters accused him of “selling” Spain “to Muslims” and blamed him for what they described as an “out-of-control crisis”.
A heavy police presence was deployed around the embassy, including a helicopter and a surveillance drone overhead.
‘A better future’
In Morocco, Soufian, 42, told AFP that he had been planning to make a swim from his coastal town of Martil, located less than 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Ceuta, when a friend told him that the border was open.
“It didn’t take long — just five minutes or less, maybe three — since it was right at the border.”
He explained he was motivated by the potential to visit his mother, who is ill and lives in Madrid.
“Even though there’s no food, nothing at all, I’ll endure anything to see my mother,” Soufian said, adding he makes just 10 euros ($12) a day working 12-hour shifts as a security guard.
As for the others who crossed, he said, “everyone wants to move up, wants a good future — something that doesn’t exist in Morocco”.
What sparked the sudden massive flow of migrants remains unclear.
Morocco’s authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the development.
A Moroccan source close to the border operations told AFP on condition of anonymity Saturday that those being returned by Spain were being transported home directly by bus or via the railway station in Tangier, 70 kilometres (45 miles) away.
The Fnideq border crossing is now “completely secure”, the source added, as are the hills overlooking it, from which hundreds of people, mostly young men, had thrown stones at security forces on Friday.
Ceuta, a territory of 18.5 square kilometres (seven square miles), and the nearby enclave of Melilla are Europe’s only two land borders with Africa.
Previous migrant surges have occurred during tensions between Spain and Morocco, including in 2021 which led more than 10,000 migrants to enter Ceuta in just two days.
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