CEUTA, Spain — Spain will install a 500-meter sea barrier along the maritime border of its North African enclave of Ceuta after a mass migrant crossing from Morocco left at least 67 people dead and prompted renewed calls for tighter European border coordination.
Spanish authorities said between 50,000 and 60,000 migrants breached the frontier earlier this week. The death toll rose to 67 on Saturday, with victims dying by drowning or in a stampede near a breakwater crossing.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez criticized calls from some European leaders to suspend Spain from the Schengen free-travel area, describing such reactions as being driven by “prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest.”
Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska announced the new sea barrier and said authorities had already returned most of those who crossed into Ceuta to Morocco.
“We are relentless against those who break the law,” Marlaska said during a visit to the enclave.
He defended Morocco’s cooperation, rejecting suggestions that Rabat posed a threat to Ceuta or Spain.
“The events require an evaluation by Spain and Morocco,” he said, adding that bilateral cooperation had helped restore control within 24 hours.
The crisis prompted the leaders of 22 European Union countries to call for an emergency meeting of EU interior ministers to coordinate a common response to mass migration and strengthen protection of the bloc’s external borders.
Sánchez also requested an extraordinary videoconference of EU interior ministers, arguing that protecting the Union’s external frontiers is a shared European responsibility.
Meanwhile, hundreds of migrants voluntarily crossed back into Morocco on Saturday, saying they faced harsh conditions, food shortages and inadequate shelter after reaching Ceuta.
Source: Saudi Gazette