Spain Claims Ceuta Crisis Easing, With Most Migrants Already Returned to Morocco

Spanish officials say almost all of the 50,000 to 60,000 migrants who flooded into the nation’s North African enclave of Ceuta this week have voluntarily returned to Morocco, drawing incredulous social media responses from some residents of the territory.“Practically the entirety of those who entered Ceuta have already returned to Morocco,” said a Friday evening post on X from Spain’s foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, who stressed to his country’s EU neighbors that they needn’t fear a flood of migrants across the Schengen Zone’s open borders.An unidentified Spanish official made a similar claim to Politico at Brussels, saying, “Most of the people that came yesterday are now back in Morocco,” and that the situation is “on the path back to normality.”Reuters said beaches that had been flooded with thousands of migrants in recent days were mostly empty on Saturday, with Spanish soldiers and police patrolling in a thick fog. The news agency published a photo showing more than 100 migrants being escorted to a border crossing by Spanish police.However, Mr. Manuel’s post was met with outraged rejoinders from several Ceuta residents, who accused him of lying.“What the [expletive] are you talking about????? The Moroccan invaders are CURRENTLY desecrating the graves of Ceuta and HURLING THE ROCKS at the citizens of Ceuta. RIGHT NOW. LOOK AND SEE. YOU ARE A LIAR!!!!!!!!!!!” wrote one user who posted a video of a handful of persons in a cemetery throwing rocks.“Lie! come to Ceuta! there are thousands in the streets and they’re trying to break into houses,” wrote another. A third user acknowledged that many of the migrants appeared to have left but claimed that “the vast majority left due to lack of resources, voluntarily. Not due to expulsion orders.”The latter view was reinforced by comments from some of the migrants, who told Reuters they were giving up their hopes of reaching Europe and going home because of hunger, exhaustion and hostility from locals.Ceuta, a 7-square-mile coastal enclave bordering Morocco, has been subject to periodic influxes of African migrants hoping to make their way from there to the Spanish mainland and, potentially, from there to other countries in the 29-nation Schengen zone.The latest rush appears to have been prompted by a recent Spanish Supreme Court decision finding that migrants who reached Spanish territory without passing through any barrier could not be deported without a legal procedure. That prompted thousands of migrants to flood onto the enclave’s beaches by sea, either in small boats or simply swimming past the border.To stem the human tide, Civil Guard police in Ceuta began Saturday morning to lay what Reuters described as a pneumatic barrier, alongside a line of anchored naval buoys, in the sea at a key crossing point.The situation has alarmed Spain’s neighbors, some of which have suggested that the country be suspended or expelled from the Schengen zone, which allows free passage between member countries without visas or passport checks. More than 20 EU governments called on Saturday for an emergency meeting of interior ministers to discuss the crisis, Reuters reported. Mr. Manuel maintained in his X post that their concern was not necessary. “It is not possible to travel from Ceuta and Melilla to the Peninsula without identifying oneself at a police checkpoint,” the minister wrote on X. “The integrity of the Schengen Area is absolutely guaranteed. Enough of this deliberate confusion.”

Spain Claims Ceuta Crisis Easing, With Most Migrants Already Returned to Morocco

Spain Claims Ceuta Crisis Easing, With Most Migrants Already Returned to Morocco

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