Symbolic imageThe crossing urged online failed to materialise on Saturday: Moroccan police detained between 111 and around 300 people near Ceuta, reportedly using tear gas. Spain's reinforced police, army and maritime barrier deployment remains in place.
Ceuta is a Spanish city on the North African coast, separated from Morocco by a fortified land border and reachable by sea along the coastline. Migrants try to enter either by climbing or breaching the fence or by swimming around it, and the current wave has brought more than 1,500 people into the city over roughly a week, with at least 18 dying in the attempt. The largest single push came on Thursday, 30 July, when thousands crossed. Local officials say the police there are overwhelmed and have asked Madrid to declare a national emergency, and the Spanish government has answered by deploying military reinforcements. The crossings are also adding strain to Spain's relations with Rabat.
Moroccan police arrested more than 100 people who tried to enter the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on Saturday, 111 according to The Guardian and about 300 according to the FAZ, after a social media campaign called for another mass crossing. The larger surge did not happen, and the FAZ reports that officers apparently used tear gas.
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 Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said about 5,000 migrants are still in Ceuta after the mass crossing, with about 880 police officers and 714 Civil Guard personnel deployed in the city, TASS reported. On Wednesday, Spain rejected any discussion of the status of Ceuta and Melilla.
Morocco's interior ministry said on Wednesday it had reinforced security along the borders with the Spanish enclaves and made arrests after fresh social media calls for mass crossings. The European Commission announced a communication tool agreed with Meta and TikTok to counter the disinformation that fed the crossings of 30 and 31 July.
A study reported on Tuesday traces the mass entry into Ceuta to viral videos of the first crossings. Morocco is building a four-metre barrier near Fnideq.
Ceuta's mayor has demanded an internment centre for the thousands of migrants still in the enclave. Spain and Italy keep their border checks before a mass crossing called for 15 August.
Spain checked 199 arrivals from Italy at its six largest airports on Saturday, the first day of retaliatory controls. Rome calls the step unacceptable and keeps its own checks.
Spain began checks on air and sea arrivals from Italy at midnight on Saturday, answering Rome's suspension of Schengen free travel over the Ceuta crossings.
Spanish checks on travellers arriving from Italy took effect at midnight on Saturday and are to run until 7 September, Le Monde and the Guardian reported, a response to controls Italy introduced on 1 August for air and sea traffic with Spain after the rush on Ceuta. Madrid has threatened proportional measures and urged Rome to lift its controls no later than 9 August, according to TASS citing Reuters.
The European Commission has asked Meta and TikTok to strengthen monitoring and fact-checking after online reports of a supposed border opening preceded the rush of tens of thousands on Ceuta, the FAZ and Le Monde reported, citing digital commissioner Henna Virkkunen. TASS reports that Moroccan police were put on high alert and that the Spanish navy sent two additional frigates after posts circulated about a new mass crossing attempt.
Nearly a week after the mass crossing into Spain's enclave of Ceuta in late July, officials put the death toll at around 100. Up to 5,000 people remain in the city, and Morocco lists about 60 of its citizens as missing.
Hundreds of people gathered in the Moroccan town of Fnideq this week, holding up photos of relatives missing since some 72,000 people crossed into Spain's enclave of Ceuta late last month. Officials now put the death toll close to 100.
Italy has suspended Schengen free movement at its border with Spain over last week's mass crossing into Ceuta. At an emergency videoconference on Tuesday, EU interior ministers closed ranks behind Madrid instead.
EU interior ministers held emergency talks on Tuesday over last week's mass crossing into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta. A Spanish forensic commission has put the death toll at 77.
Tens of thousands of people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Thursday and Friday, and most have since gone back. EU interior ministers hold emergency talks on Tuesday after Italy and Denmark demanded Spain's temporary suspension from Schengen.
The death toll from last week's mass crossing into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta has risen to at least 72, up from 67. Most of the tens of thousands who got in have since gone back to Morocco.
EU interior ministers will hold an urgent videoconference on Tuesday over the Ceuta crisis, amid continued divisions in the bloc over the mass crossing of migrants into the Spanish territory in north Africa. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU had offered Spain support "from the first moment" and that "not a single person reached mainland Spain or rest of EU", after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez condemned the "selfish, polarising" reaction of some countries; Bloomberg described Sánchez as isolated.
The number of people who drowned trying to reach Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta has risen to 67. EU interior ministers will meet in an extraordinary session on Tuesday.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy intends to suspend the Schengen Agreement with Spain, and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares responded by summoning the Italian ambassador. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she had spoken with Giorgia Meloni and backed the proposal, Borrell said no EU country can unilaterally expel another from Schengen, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen demanded "swift returns" of migrants from Ceuta and the dismantling of smuggling networks.
Tens of thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain's Ceuta enclave on Thursday, most of them swimming. By Friday evening Spain's interior ministry said more than 48,300 had gone back voluntarily.
Thousands of migrants swam around or breached the border fence from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, with more than 1,500 reaching the city over a week and the bodies of at least 10 migrants found. Spain sent military reinforcements after local officials warned that the police were overwhelmed and called for a national emergency, adding to tensions with Rabat.