CEUTA (Spain), May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 5,000 migrants, about a thousand of them minors, reached Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Monday from neighbouring Morocco, Spanish officials said, a record in a single day.
A spokesman for the Spanish government delegation in Ceuta said the scale of the influx, which comes at a time of high tension between Madrid and Rabat, was unprecedented and could yet rise.
The migrants had reached the enclave by swimming or walking at low tide from beaches in neighbouring Morocco a few kilometres to the south, he said. One man drowned on the journey.
During the morning, the delegation put the number at 100 arrivals, saying they were mostly young men but also included children and some women who had used inflatable swimming rings and rubber dinghies.
Others were able to almost walk there when the tide went out, the spokesman said, with the numbers climbing rapidly throughout the day.
After being checked by the Red Cross, the migrants were taken to a reception centre on the beach of El Tarajal, with authorities meeting to discuss how to handle the situation given the record arrivals.
Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement Monday evening that “immediate reinforcements of the civil guard presence and national police” would be sent to Ceuta, totalling 200 officers.
It added that “Spanish and Moroccan authorities have recently reached an agreement concerning the return to their home country of Moroccan citizens arriving on the beach” at Ceuta, and that authorities from the two sides were in “permanent” contact. — NNN-AGENCIES
