Ceuta asks Spain to declare emergency over Morocco migrants
Officials in the Spanish territory of Ceuta on Thursday asked the government in Madrid to declare a national emergency and send the army to help secure its border with Morocco, after a surge in migrant arrivals. Video footage showed crowds trying to bypass breakwaters or scale the border fence, with hundreds entering the city.
Juan Jesus Vivas, head of the Ceuta regional government, called on the Spanish central government to declare a national security emergency, requesting additional police forces and army deployment at the border with Morocco. The call came after video footage showed large crowds attempting to walk around the breakwaters separating Moroccan and Spanish territory or climb the border fence.
Spain's EFE news agency reported that hundreds had climbed over protective barriers at places and times when police were absent. A spokesman for Spain's Guardia Civil told Reuters that migrants had overwhelmed police at the city's breakwater after swimming from the Moroccan side and were entering en masse. Rescue parties had noted increased numbers trying to swim around border checks in recent days.
The scenes recalled a similar incident in May 2021 when more than 8,000 people entered the territory in just two days. Vivas said the city's Temporary Migrant Reception Center (CETI) had nearly a thousand people waiting outside. "Yesterday, I spoke out to warn of the extreme gravity of the migration crisis we are enduring," Vivas wrote online. "Today, mere hours later, the situation is even more critical: another night of mass arrivals, nearly a thousand people waiting outside the CETI, our resources completely overwhelmed, and another life lost at sea."
He described the situation as "a humanitarian and social emergency" of national proportions, adding that 1,500 to 2,000 people had arrived in just 10 days, equivalent to 2% of Ceuta's population. "With every passing hour, the situation becomes more difficult," he stated.
