Spanish authorities have said about 49,000 migrants entered the North African enclave of Ceuta from neighboring Morocco within a single day, marking one of the largest mass border crossings in the country’s history.
Most of the migrants on Thursday, July 31, swam around a breakwater from Morocco to reach a Ceuta beach, overwhelmed Spanish police, and forced the deployment of the army.
The figure is nearly five times the daily peak of the 2015 migration crisis, when hundreds of thousands of refugees entered Europe via Turkey, mainly from Syria and Afghanistan.
The national security department in the Spanish prime minister’s office said “more than 49,000” people had streamed into Ceuta in an online statement that was posted at 8am on Friday, then taken down. It said the Spanish security forces had recovered the bodies of 19 people from the water.
The migrants on Thursday were mostly young Moroccan men, but included women, children and non-Moroccans. More people tried to climb over fences to get into Ceuta on Friday morning, sparking violent clashes with Spanish police.
But thousands of others began to return to Morocco, having been told they would not be granted permission to remain on Spanish territory, the national news agency EFE reported.
The Spanish government said Spain and Morocco had agreed to “strengthen co-ordination and review measures to enable the return, as soon as possible, of people who have entered Ceuta irregularly”.
Spain blamed the situation on “people-smuggling networks”, saying they were exploiting a Supreme Court decision this month that stops the authorities from intercepting and sending back migrants who arrive in Ceuta and Melilla by sea.