The European Union is scrambling to contain one of the largest migrant crises in recent years, after tens of thousands of people crossed into Spain’s enclave in north Africa from Morocco.
About 60,000 migrants have entered Ceuta, regional president Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters.
By Friday evening (local time), however, officials said more than 48,000 of them had returned to Morocco.
To cross into Ceuta, many had to swim around a small border barrier that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, but at least 34 died in the attempt.
The sudden, massive influx sparked an international crisis.
France tightened checks on its border with Spain and reinforced police and gendarmes there.
Italy announced it had suspended its Schengen agreement with Spain, the zone allowing free movement between the borders of its member states.
Several European countries had already said Spain’s membership in the Schengen free movement zone should be suspended.
Across the Atlantic, US President Donald Trump led far-right efforts to seize on the crossing to advance hardline immigration policies.
Madrid rushed troops, more police, drones, divers and boats to the outpost that it has run for centuries as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his interior minister visited the enclave on Friday.
Scores of men, women and children have entered Ceuta, the shoreline littered with flotation rings and clothes used in the risky passage.
On Friday, hundreds of migrants, mostly young men, were hanging around on the Morocco side of the border. But others were seen turning back, saying “there are too many people here”.
Inside Ceuta, shops were closed and annual fiestas were cancelled.
Mohammed, a local taxi driver and Ceuta resident, told AFP: “It’s catastrophic. Sure, we sympathise with them – they’re having a terrible time in their own country, and all that – but this isn’t the way to enter a place, nor is it a way to live.”
Some previous surges have occurred during tensions between Spain and Morocco.
Prime Minister Sanchez visited Algiers on July 20 – the first such visit by a Spanish head of government in four years – marking a thaw in relations with Morocco’s rival Algeria.
But it was not clear if there was any connection between that visit and the influx.
Sanchez, in Ceuta, blamed the sudden inflow on people-traffickers spreading rumours about a Spanish Supreme Court ruling this month that irregular migrants arriving by sea could not be immediately returned.
He said: “What has emerged from our talks with Moroccan authorities is that trafficking mafias took a self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling.”
That interpretation “spread like wildfire in recent hours”.
Scenes of the crowds entering an EU member state, which normally does not enforce border controls between members, sparked diplomatic fallout.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called the scenes at Ceuta “unacceptable”.
She said: “We cannot allow anyone to come to our [European] Union without abiding by our rules”.
Italy announced that it was suspending its Schengen agreement with Spain.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X: “The temporary suspension of Schengen with Spain is a necessary decision to protect the security of our citizens and defend Europe’s borders.”
Madrid had already summoned Italy’s ambassador to accuse Rome of using the crisis for political gain.
Finland and Denmark on Friday backed Italy’s line, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz demanded Morocco “take back illegal migrants immediately”.
France and Britain said they stood ready to help Spain with the sudden surge, even as Paris tightened border checks with Spain.
In America President Trump saw an opportunity to promote Republican candidates in upcoming elections – warning: “It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people, and that same thing’s going to happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected, except worse, much bigger.”
Sanchez, in an apparent reference to the growing pressure from his European partners, said on X: “This is not the time to divide.”
Ceuta, a territory of 18.5 square kilometres, and the nearby enclave of Melilla are Europe’s only two land borders with Africa.
Morocco’s authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the flow of migrants.
During a similar surge in 2021, more than 10,000 migrants reached Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco over the course of two days during a diplomatic spat between the two countries.
The row erupted after Spain decided to host for medical treatment a leader of the Polisario Front, whose guerillas fought a long war with Rabat over the independence of the Western Sahara region.
The crisis ended in 2022 when Madrid reversed its long-standing policy of neutrality and backed Morocco’s plan for Western Sahara – a move that had caused a diplomatic rift between Madrid and Algiers.
Sanchez’s July visit to Algeria seemed to indicate that rift was softening.
– AFP