MADRID: Hundreds of migrants took advantage of a thick mist to swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighboring Morocco on Sunday and early on Monday, local police said.
Spain’s two enclaves on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla, share the only land borders of the EU with Africa. The enclaves sporadically experience waves of attempted crossings by migrants trying to reach Europe.
Many of the migrants were intercepted near or on El Tarajal beach next to the Ceuta-Morocco border, a spokesperson for the Guardia Civil police said.
“There was pressure and we handled it with Morocco,” he said. The spokesperson added that the mist had lifted by Monday morning.
Police have intercepted an average of around 700 migrants trying to enter Ceuta each day since Thursday, with up to 1,500 people making the attempt on Sunday night, according to Cristina Perez, the Spanish government’s representative in Ceuta.
Moroccan nationals detained during the crossings are immediately sent back to Morocco unless they are underage or seeking asylum, Perez said.
People of other nationalities are taken to special centers where they are given shelter and released after a few days.
Another unknown number of people have managed to sneak illegally into the enclave without being detained by the police, a spokesperson for Perez’s office said.
Two years ago, at least 23 people died in a stampede when about 2,000 migrants tried to storm into Melilla, pushing down the border fence.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will start his second visit this year to West Africa on Tuesday, aiming to curb migration to the Canary Islands and to counter the Russian presence in the Sahel region.
The West African migration route has seen a 154 percent surge this year, with 21,620 people crossing to the Canary Islands in the first seven months, according to data from the European Union border agency Frontex.
The wave has stretched resources on the Spanish archipelago, with local authorities saying they may have to house migrants in military camps or even in tents ahead of an expected rise in arrivals due to calmer conditions in the Atlantic Ocean.
Spanish authorities fear that as many as 150,000 more migrants from Africa may be set to make the perilous crossing in the coming months.
According to Frontex data, nearly half of the new arrivals are Malians, forced out of their country by a conflict and economic crisis in which the Russian mercenary group Wagner is involved.
Sanchez is focusing on strengthening relations with Mauritania, Senegal, and Gambia, the main departure points for migrant boats. The first two share land borders with Mali.
