By Michael Francis Gore and Ahmed Eljechtimi
CEUTA, Spain/ FNIDEQ, Morocco, July 31 (Reuters) – Spain and Morocco reinforced the border fence of a Spanish enclave on Friday and appeared to have largely halted mass crossings after tens of thousands of people arrived by sea and land in a day, with at least 19 dead bodies found in the water.
The Spanish Department of National Security said on its website that more than 49,000 people were estimated to have crossed illegally in 24 hours, citing the Interior Ministry. The statement was later deleted from the website with no immediate explanation.
The mass crossing into Ceuta, a tiny Spanish-held spit jutting into the Mediterranean from Morocco, caused shock and division in Europe. France said it was increasing checks on its border with Spain, and Italy threatened to suspend Spain from the EU’s internal open border scheme.
At the gates into Ceuta, Moroccan authorities had deployed water cannon trucks and pushed people back. The charred remains of a bus and seven cars could be seen nearby from clashes with the crowds.
Spanish authorities said they would try to expel those who had entered illegally as quickly as possible, despite a court ruling that put some restrictions on special “border rejection” rules that allow immediate expulsions from the enclave.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was due to visit Ceuta on Friday with Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish autonomous city in northern Morocco, have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. The two cities, each home to around 85,000 people, both periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe, but the scale of Thursday’s rush had little precedent.
Territorial Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres said on Friday that among factors contributing to the surge may have been a ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court earlier this month that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot be summarily returned under special rules.
MIGRANTS STREAM INTO TOWN ON MOROCCAN SIDE OF BORDER
Torres told a local radio station the Spanish government had reacted immediately to the surge and would proceed to eventually return the migrants, while respecting court rulings and migrants’ rights.
On the Moroccan side of the border, thousands of migrants streamed into the town of Fnideq overnight despite a reinforced deployment of security that foiled most attempts to cross. Although the crossing appeared blocked, groups moved along the coast seeking routes around the fence. Some prepared to swim.
“I was late,” said Brahim, 32, who gave only one name. He said he had arrived from Tangier hoping to cross through the gate but found it effectively shut. Among those hoping to cross were women and children, from both Morocco and sub-Saharan African countries further south.
In a post on X, Spain’s Guardia Civil police association AUGC said there had been too few police in place to monitor the fence during the surge on Thursday, making them unable to stop it.
Migration is a sensitive issue across Europe, where right-wing parties have surged in the decade since a 2015 crisis when more than a million people crossed the continent mainly on foot and sought asylum, most fleeing war in Syria.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said he had already issued instructions “to immediately step up checks at the Spanish border”.
Nunez’s statement did not spell out what that meant in practice and there was no immediate response to a request from the ministry for further comment. There are normally no checks at borders between members of the EU’s internal Schengen Area, though they can be introduced for a limited time in exceptional circumstances.
Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her country was prepared “to intervene with extraordinary measures to defend the borders and the safety of citizens, including the suspension of the Schengen Area with Spain.”
Finland’s interior minister, also from a right-wing party, praised Meloni’s proposal and said the EU should follow Italy’s lead.
While Spain’s Socialist government says it remains firm over illegal crossings, it says immigrants help strengthen the economy and has offered a mass amnesty that saw hundreds of thousands of people seek citizenship over the past year.
“The images coming from Ceuta show how the Madrid Government’s decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to over 500,000 irregular immigrants is profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking,” Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares replied that Tajani’s message was “inappropriate”, and said Spain expected “solidarity and not partisan demagoguery” from its partner. He added he would summon the Italian ambassador to protest.
Marine Le Pen, presidential candidate from France’s far-right National Rally, said that if she wins an election next year she would restrict free movement under Schengen to European nationals.
“In the face of the massive and coordinated influx of migrants into Spain — encouraged by the Spanish government — France must immediately strengthen its border controls,” she said on X.
(Reporting by Michael Gore, Ahmed Eljechtimi, Emma Pinedo and Joan Faus. Additional reporting by Inti Laudaro, Francesca Piscioneri and Alvise ArmelliniEditing by Peter Graff)
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