The death toll in the Ceuta border crisis involving migrants from Morocco has reached 67. This information was released by the Spanish government on Saturday. The fatalities include individuals who drowned and others who died in a stampede while trying to cross the breakwater barrier.
Spain plans to install a 500-meter-long containment barrier along the breakwater fence extending into the sea. This decision follows the influx of approximately 60,000 migrants into the small Spanish territory between Thursday and Friday. Some exhausted migrants who swam to Ceuta’s urban Tarajal beach on Saturday morning were escorted back to Morocco by soldiers.
The Spanish interior ministry reported that the majority of those who crossed into Ceuta have returned to Morocco. After days of chaos with streets brimming with migrants seeking a better life in Spain, Ceuta’s residents found an unsettling calm on Saturday. Despite this, security for the autonomous city, home to 84,000 people, remains compromised.
Juan Jesus Vivas, the President of Ceuta, stated, “Life in this city has been disrupted as a result of the border incident. The return of people has begun satisfactorily, but the process must be completed. The city has not yet returned to normal.”
Yet, some migrants, like 23-year-old Moroccan Mohamed Hatri, remained in Ceuta. Hatri commented, “They’ve closed everything down so that we can’t buy anything to eat, to force us to return to our country. But even if they close it down … we’re determined to stay here, whether we’re hungry or not.”