Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

IMMIGRATION

IN IMAGES: 6,000 migrants swim across to Spain’s Ceuta in record crossing

Spain is making international headlines after a record number of migrants crossed over from Morocco into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta on Monday and Tuesday. These photos and videos showcase this unprecedented event in Spanish migration history.

Published: 18 May 2021 13:11 CEST
IN IMAGES: 6,000 migrants swim across to Spain's Ceuta in record crossing
Tear gas fills the air as Moroccan migrants rally by a border fence in the northern town of Fnideq in an attempt to cross the border from Morocco to Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta on May 18, 2021.Photo: AFP

Tuesday’s newspapers in Spain have been dominated by the arrival of 6,000 undocumented migrants who crossed from Morocco over to the Spanish territory of Ceuta on Monday and Tuesday, as hundreds more tried to reach Spain’s north African enclave.

They reached Ceuta by swimming or by walking at low tide from beaches a few kilometres to the south, some using inflatable swimming rings and rubber dinghies.

Speaking after the weekly cabinet meeting, Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Spain had already returned “2,700 people” who had entered the territory illegally, updating an earlier figure of 1,500.

Migrants slip through a border fence in the northern town of Fnideq in an attempt to cross the border from Morocco to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on May 18th, 2021. Photo: FADEL SENNA /AFP

The massive influx, which was a record number for a single day, had steadily made their way into Ceuta throughout the day on Monday, prompting a crisis in the tiny territory which is home to some 84,000 people.

A spokesman for the Spanish government delegation in Ceuta said the numbers arriving Monday were unprecedented.

The migrants had reached the enclave by swimming or walking at low tide from beaches in neighbouring Morocco, he added. None had been hospitalised and “they are doing well”, he said.

A Spanish soldier stands guard as migrants reach Ceuta’s shores. Photo: Antonio Sempere / AFP

The unprecedented number of arrivals, which occurred at a time of tension in Madrid’s ties with Rabat, prompted Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to cancel a trip to Paris later on Tuesday where he was to attend an Africa financing summit, the government said.

Meanwhile, the local authorities in Melilla, Spain’s other north African enclave, said more than 300 migrants had tried to cross the barrier into the territory before dawn on Tuesday, with 86 of them succeeding.

The EU commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, on Tuesday urged Morocco to “prevent irregular departures” of migrants after some 6,000 entered Spain’s Ceuta enclave from the North African country.

Moroccan migrants on the shore of the northern town of Fnideq as they attempt to cross the border from Morocco to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta. Photo: FADEL SENNA/AFP

Johansson, speaking to the European Parliament, called the ongoing migrant arrivals to Ceuta “worrying” and said: “The most important thing now is that Morocco continues to commit to prevent irregular departures, and that those that do not have the right to stay are orderly and effectively returned. Spanish borders are European borders.”

Spanish Civil guards pull a migrant into an inflatable boat as he nears the shores of Ceuta. Photo: Antonio Sempere/AFP

More than 80 migrants also crossed a high barrier from Morocco into Melilla Tuesday, local authorities said, as thousands of others entered into Spain’s other North African enclave of Ceuta.

READ MORE:

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

SHOW COMMENTS