Moroccan police detain over 100 people trying to reach Ceuta
Moroccan police arrested 111 people attempting to cross into Spain's Ceuta enclave after social media calls for another mass crossing, with security tightened on both sides of the border.
Moroccan authorities detained 111 people on Saturday as they tried to reach Spain's north African territory of Ceuta, an interior ministry source told Reuters. Those held included 109 sub-Saharan African migrants and two Moroccan nationals, arrested in or near the border city of Fnideq.
According to Spanish news agency EFE, Moroccan police fired teargas to disperse groups of migrants who had gathered on hills roughly 3km from the border. Hundreds of officers, some in riot gear, were later seen returning from the hills near Fnideq. EFE and Spanish state broadcaster TVE reported that Morocco's interior ministry ordered their journalists to leave Fnideq immediately, without giving a reason.
Saturday's attempted crossing followed online calls for a fresh mass entry, coming two weeks after more than 72,000 migrants surged into Ceuta in an incident that strained relations within the EU and fuelled anti-immigration rhetoric among far-right parties internationally. At least 96 people died in that earlier attempt to reach European soil.
Heightened security
In Ceuta itself, Spanish soldiers guarded supermarkets and police patrolled main streets, though the city remained calmer than in the days following the deadly 30 July crossing. Madrid has since installed a maritime barrier and sent over 500 additional officers from mainland Spain, bringing the total police presence in Ceuta above 1,600. Interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Thursday the reinforcements would stay as long as necessary to restore normality.
Grande-Marlaska said about 5,000 migrants remain in Ceuta, with many sheltering from intense heat under makeshift bamboo structures on the city's El Trampolin beach. He reiterated that migrants who entered irregularly would not be permitted to stay in Ceuta, travel to mainland Spain, or obtain legal status, barring rare cases of extreme vulnerability, and would instead be returned to Morocco.
Earlier in the week, Rabat said it was tracking social media posts of unknown origin urging a mass crossing on 15 August and warned it would prosecute both organisers and participants. Authorities blocked groups from boarding trains and buses toward northern Morocco in cities including Casablanca, Fez and Kenitra, though some migrants reportedly avoided checkpoints by taking mountain routes toward Fnideq, where local schools had been converted into housing for security forces.
