Moroccan authorities arrested 111 people on Saturday as they attempted to cross into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, responding to social media posts that had called for a second mass crossing into the North African territory.
The arrests took place in and around Fnideq, a Moroccan coastal town about 3km from the border. A source in Morocco’s interior ministry told Reuters that those detained included 109 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and two Moroccan citizens. Police in riot gear used tear gas. Crowds had gathered on nearby hills.
The attempted crossing came two weeks after a massive influx on July 30, when tens of thousands of migrants arrived in Ceuta in a matter of hours. Footage posted online on Saturday showed large crowds of people heading towards Ceuta, according to Al Jazeera. The scale of that earlier surge and the death toll vary across accounts. The BBC, citing the city’s mayor, reported roughly 78,000 arrivals and 100 deaths. The Guardian and Al Jazeera placed the number of arrivals at approximately 72,000, with at least 96 people dead.
Security buildup on both sides
Both countries reinforced the border. Morocco dispatched army officers, navy speedboats, and drones to the area on Saturday, according to the BBC. Spain deployed more than 1,500 security officers to patrol the zone, the BBC reported, while the Guardian cited the interior ministry as saying 500 additional police were sent from mainland Spain, raising the total in Ceuta to more than 1,600. Spanish soldiers guarded supermarkets. Police patrolled the main streets. The city was calmer than in the days after the deadly crossing attempt on July 30. The interior ministry said the reinforcements would remain for as long as needed.
A Reuters witness saw reinforced security near the border, including police vans with wire shields and road checkpoints. Local media reported similar measures near Melilla, another Spanish territory in North Africa. Authorities prevented several groups from boarding trains and buses to northern Morocco in cities such as Casablanca, Fez, and Kenitra, though witnesses told Reuters that some migrants bypassed checkpoints by taking mountain routes toward Fnideq. One witness said schools in Fnideq had been turned into accommodation for security forces deployed near the border.
Rabat said earlier in the week it was monitoring what it described as the circulation of social media posts and messages of unknown origin calling for a mass crossing on Saturday. The government warned it would prosecute organizers and participants. Spanish newspaper El País reported that security at the breakwater entrance was 10 times stronger than the previous day. Morocco had also installed a metal fence and a floating barrier earlier in the week.
Journalists expelled and EU tensions
Morocco ordered journalists to leave Fnideq. Spanish news agency EFE and state broadcaster TVE reported that Morocco’s interior ministry ordered their journalists to leave the town immediately, without providing an explanation. Reuters later saw hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear and others in plainclothes, returning from the hills outside Fnideq.
The crisis has sparked tensions within the EU. Italy suspended its Schengen arrangement with Spain, backed by Finland and Denmark. The Czech Republic called for Spain’s membership to be temporarily suspended, despite Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez noting that Ceuta was not part of the Schengen area. The Guardian reported that the crisis prompted anti-immigration rhetoric among far-right parties worldwide. Spanish newspaper ABC reported that hundreds of people were travelling to the enclave, which Morocco does not recognise as Spanish territory.
About 5,000 migrants remained in Ceuta, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Thursday. Reuters saw hundreds sheltering from scorching heat under makeshift bamboo shelters on the urban beach of El Trampolin. “We’ll continue to deploy whatever personnel are necessary to restore normality as soon as possible and prevent events like those of 30 July from happening again,” he said. Grande-Marlaska said migrants who entered irregularly would not be allowed to stay in the territory, travel to mainland Spain, or obtain legal status, except in rare cases involving extreme vulnerability, and those without a right to remain would be returned to Morocco.
Spanish lawmaker Jaime de los Santos, deputy secretary of education for the conservative People’s Party, accused Sánchez of failing to address the crisis. Sánchez is on holiday at the Royal Residence of La Mareta in Lanzarote. De los Santos said in a statement that 16 days had passed since Spain was invaded by more than 80,000 Moroccan citizens, and that Sánchez was still in La Mareta without giving any explanation.
Local news outlet Le360 reported on Saturday afternoon that as many as 294 people had been arrested, including 46 Moroccans, with the rest from sub-Saharan Africa. That figure would exceed the 111 detentions cited by the interior ministry source.