Symbolic imageSpain and Morocco reinforce Ceuta border before crossing call
Spain and Morocco massed police and troops at the Ceuta border before online calls for a crossing on Saturday. Some 5,000 migrants from the late-July influx remain in the enclave.
Spanish police and Civil Guard strength rose from just over 1,100 to about 1,600 officers, backed by 2,000 soldiers, and security forces laid a maritime barrier off the El Tarajal breakwater that permits pushbacks at sea, El País reported on Friday, 14 August. Morocco reinforced the Fnideq crossing with hundreds of police and troops, and its interior ministry spokesman Rachid el Jalfi called the online appeals "suspicious and misleading" on Wednesday. Spain's interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said in Ceuta a day later that none of those who cross would stay or reach the mainland.
Removals and numbers
Madrid is speeding up removals of those who came on 30 and 31 July, while Ceuta's regional president Juan Jesús Vivas says at least 9,000 are still there.
Arrests in Morocco
Moroccan authorities detained a group suspected of promoting the call, and FAZ reports cases against more than 80 people in Morocco.
Mourning in Tetouan
Le Monde reports that the body of an 18-year-old who tried to swim to Ceuta reached his family in Tetouan on Tuesday, 11 August; of the 82 bodies recovered on the Spanish side, six have been identified.
Other opinions
El País cites migrant accounts that Moroccan police let people through in late July; Rabat speaks of continuous surveillance.