At least 5,000 migrants have reached Spain’s Ceuta enclave from neighbouring Morocco, a record number of arrivals in a single day, local officials say.
It is said that the migrants – who include hundreds of minors – either swam around the border fences that jut out into the sea or walked across at low tide mostly from Morocco.
Spanish media also said that Moroccan border guards did not stop them.
Spain’s Ceuta and Melilla enclaves have become magnets for African migrants.
Early reports on Monday said more than 100 people had come overnight around the coast at Benzu on the north side of Ceuta, followed by some at Tarajal on the south side.
Most were said to be young men, but the group also included children and several families. Many had used inflatable rings and rubber dinghies, authorities added.
They were taken to a migrant reception centre. But as more turned up later in the day, officials said the number had risen to 5,000 – an unprecedented figure which they warned could rise further.
Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya said some migrants were already being sent back to Morocco.
Last month more than 100 migrants arrived in Tarajal. Most of them were sent back, except about 30 minors whose ages were confirmed by medical tests.
The arrivals come at a tense time in Morocco’s relations with Spain. Morocco is angry that the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has been receiving treatment in a Spanish hospital.
Polisario has been fighting for the independence of Western Sahara for decades. The territory was occupied by Spain until 1975, when Morocco took control of most of it.
The EU border force Frontex reports that illegal migration to Spain’s Canary Islands – off the Moroccan coast – has surged this year. In most cases sub-Saharan Africans make perilous journeys in rickety boats and drowning is common.
To solve this migration problem, the Spanish Minister’s Council issued a grant of €30 Mn (USD 33.35 Mn) in 2019 to help Morocco in its efforts to curb illegal immigrants from its geography to the southern Spanish shores, however, the problem still persists.
Seeing this, the overall numbers of undocumented migrants reaching Europe so far this year remain far below the levels seen in 2015-2016.
