Thousands of migrants have attempted to cross the border from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in recent days, including hundreds of young people who tried to bypass checks by swimming, Spanish authorities said on Monday.
Videos broadcast by Spanish media over the weekend showed Spanish police intercepting migrants in the water at night amid thick fog and also in broad daylight, trying to separate the new arrivals from crowds of bathers.
Cristina Pérez, the Spanish government’s representative in Ceuta, told reporters on Monday that since August 22, an average of 700 people had tried to cross the border each day, with a peak of 1,500 attempts on Sunday.
Pérez did not disclose how many people had successfully reached Ceuta, but she explained that under Spanish law, which allows “pushbacks at the border,” authorities have been sending between 150 and 200 people back to Morocco daily. She thanked the Moroccan authorities for their “loyal cooperation.”
Ceuta and Melilla, two tiny Spanish territories in North Africa bordering the Mediterranean, have long been targets for migrants and refugees seeking a better life in Europe. Many of them attempt to scale the barbed wire surrounding the autonomous cities or reach the enclaves by sea.
Due to the geography, Spain relies heavily on Morocco’s goodwill to control these borders and prevent migrants from entering. In 2021, following a diplomatic spat between the two nations, thousands of people, including many unaccompanied Moroccan children, flooded into Ceuta over a few days, overwhelming Spanish authorities.
While Spain and Morocco have since normalized their relations and are working together to combat irregular migration, Ceuta’s authorities claim they are once again under pressure this year. There have been 1,622 migrant arrivals in Ceuta from January to mid-August, compared to just 620 during the same period last year, according to statistics released by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
In February, residents of the nearby Moroccan town of Belyounech attempted to swim to Ceuta after the Moroccan government began demolishing unauthorized seaside homes to make way for new real estate projects.
Although the number of migrants reaching Ceuta represents only a tiny fraction of the more than 31,000 irregular arrivals in Spain this year, Pérez said that the 18.5-square-kilometer (7.14-square-mile) territory is under “extreme migratory pressure.”
By Africanews.