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Ceuta breach, deaths reported
Tens of thousands of migrants entered Spain’s Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco after border controls appeared to break down, with the surge described as reaching about 60,000 people in the past 24 hours.
“At least 34 migrants have died in the process.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the breach of the border as a "violation of Spain's territorial integrity" while Ceuta’s president Juan Jesús Vivas said the situation was "absolutely unsustainable".
The death toll varied by outlet and timing, with The New Indian Express reporting at least 34 migrants died and the BBC reporting at least 57 people died during the surge.
The BBC said the influx came after Spain's Supreme Court ruled that migrants stopped at sea while trying to reach Ceuta or Melilla could not be summarily returned to Morocco, and it described Ceuta as separated from mainland Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar.
Carmen Gonzalez Bermudez told the BBC the past day had been "very overwhelming" as she saw "thousands and thousands of people in swimming costumes and all wet" arriving from the sea.
Blame, quotes, and EU fallout
Sánchez blamed trafficking gangs and said the events were driven by a "self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling" that "spread like wildfire" through networks of human trafficking organizations.
The BBC quoted a man returning from Ceuta saying, "I beg you, please, if you haven't come yet, don't come. Don't do it."
Italy responded by suspending the EU's border-free Schengen arrangements with Spain, while the BBC reported that more than 48,000 people had voluntarily returned to Morocco as of Friday evening.
In Ceuta, local officials described the city as overwhelmed, and the BBC quoted Víctor Ortiz Sotomayor saying he had "never seen anything like it" as the city was "packed with immigrants, in every square and street".
The crisis also drew political pressure across Europe, with the BBC noting that Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the images and that Spain deployed its armed forces to bolster security in Ceuta and Melilla.
Containment fence and next steps
Spain said it would install a 1,600-foot containment fence on the aquatic border between Ceuta and neighboring Morocco after tens of thousands of migrants breached the enclave.
“Spain said Saturday it will install a 1,600-foot containment fence”
CBS reported that Spain’s Minister of the Interior said at least 67 people died, including some who drowned and others killed in a stampede, while it said between 50,000 and 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta since Thursday morning.
CBS quoted Ceuta’s President Juan Jesús Vivas criticizing the response, saying "action was taken too late and insufficiently," and it also quoted Sánchez calling the increase in migrants "an attack" and "a violation of Spain's territorial integrity."
The Spanish government said it deployed its army and sent extra forces, including diver teams and Maritime Service vessels, to Ceuta, and Sánchez said the Legislature was finalizing a system to "facilitate the repatriation of migrants who entered our country irregularly."
The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that "No migrant from Ceuta has reached Europe" and stressed that cooperation between Spain and Morocco meant the EU’s mainland was not reached by those arrivals.
