Ceuta | Pakistan

Moroccan police arrested at least 111 people on Saturday as they tried to enter Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, amid tightened security on both sides of the border after social media posts called for another mass migrant crossing. The attempted crossing came two weeks after more than 72,000 migrants surged into Ceuta, sparking tensions within the European Union and fuelling anti-immigration rhetoric among far-right parties worldwide. At least 96 people died in the attempt to reach European soil. A source in Morocco’s Interior Ministry told Reuters those detained included 109 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and two Moroccan citizens arrested in or around Fnideq, the Moroccan city opposite Ceuta. According to Spanish news agency EFE, Moroccan police used tear gas to disperse groups of migrants gathered on hills about 3km from the border. Reuters later saw hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear and others in plain clothes, returning from the hills outside Fnideq. EFE and Spanish state broadcaste...

Spain threatened on Friday to impose restrictions on travellers from Italy unless Rome lifts by Sunday the border controls it introduced last week following a mass influx of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Italy swiftly responded, saying it would not accept “ultimatums or impositions” from Madrid, adding that it would keep in place its suspension of Schengen rules for non-EU nationals arriving from Spain until at least August 15. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government had previously said the more robust travel checks would remain in force until the end of the month. The Spanish government said Italy’s decision to reintroduce controls on arrivals from Spain was “unjustified, contrary to the interests of the European Union and discriminatory against the Spanish population”. It promised to adopt “proportionate measures” against Italy unless Meloni rolled back the new constraints by Sunday. However, in a toughly worded statement, Meloni’s office said Spanish authorities had th...

Last week’s rush of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta began with a trickle. Encouraged by a handful of viral videos, ​including some posted by a Spanish news outlet intended to highlight the burden of migration pressures, the movement of a few dozen youths quickly turned into ‌tens of thousands swimming en masse by last Thursday. More than 80 people drowned or were crushed in a stampede, according to official tallies. A catalyst came three weeks earlier, when Spain’s Supreme Court published a ruling saying migrants caught at sea could not be immediately pushed back at the border of Spain’s North African territories of Ceuta and Melilla. The ruling does not preclude their summary return afterwards, legal experts said. View this post on Instagram Ceuta has long drawn ​migrants hoping to build a new life in Europe. But as misinterpretations of the ruling spread — including claims anyone who reached Ceuta, by sea or land, could not be ​returned — more and more people tried their luck. “Never believe thos...

At least 72 people died during the mass influx in recent days of migrants into Spain’s Ceuta enclave, when tens of thousands of people mostly swam around the border post from Morocco, local officials said on Sunday. Most of the estimated 60,000 people who rushed into Spain’s north African territory have returned to Morocco since the territory’s largest mass migrant crossing. “The latest figure that we have is 72,” the government’s delegate to Ceuta, Miguel Angel Perez Triano, told reporters, when asked about the number of fatalities. The previous toll was 67 deaths. Spanish police and troops patrolled the streets of Ceuta on Sunday as the enclave largely returned to normal after the sudden mass influx of migrants from Morocco that had occurred between Wednesday and Friday. Only small groups of migrants were still walking around after most who crossed the small border barrier returned voluntarily to Morocco in 48 hours. AFP on Saturday saw migrant minors milling around in a disused industrial park in Ceuta. Ot...

The massive and sudden influx of 60,000 migrants into Spain’s enclave of Ceuta, located in the north of Morocco, has triggered a crisis for Spain, and the European Union. How big an influx? The numbers of migrants suddenly flowing into Ceuta is outsized for the territory’s population of 80,000. Some 60,000 migrants have so far entered over the past two or three days, estimated the local regional president Juan Jesus Vivas. Around 200 migrants were arriving “every minute”, according to Ignacio Cembrero, a journalist specialised in migration in North Africa. Spain’s interior ministry counted 25,000 who have since left Ceuta to return to Morocco, Spain’s interior minister said later on Friday. The scale is far bigger than that in May 2021 when, over a few days, some 12,000 migrants flowed into Ceuta, according to the Ceuta and Melilla Observatory. Is Morocco facilitating? According to Cembrero, since Wednesday it appeared that Moroccan security forces “have been sitting on their hands”. “To reach the breakwater ...

Thousands of migrants streamed into the Moroccan town of Fnideq near the border with Ceuta overnight, despite a reinforced deployment of security that foiled most attempts to cross into the Spanish enclave. Spanish state television TVE said between 2,000 and 3,000 people crossed into Ceuta on Thursday. Most of those who succeeded in crossing appeared to have done so before midday, according to residents of Fnideq. Ceuta, along with Melilla, another Spanish autonomous city in northern Morocco, represents the European Union’s only land border with Africa. Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe. Spain sent military and police reinforcements to Ceuta after the surge, while authorities in the enclave said nine bodies had been retrieved. Vehicles burn in Fnideq, Morocco, July 31, 2026, as migrants (not pictured) wait for a chance to cross to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. — Reuters Although the border crossing appeared blocked, groups of migrants moved a...