Death toll in Spain-Morocco border crisis in Ceuta reaches 67 as tens of thousands cross back

CEUTA, Spain (AP) — Spain announced it was installing a 500-meter-long (1,600-foot) containment barrier on the sea border between its North African territory of Ceuta and neighboring Morocco after between 50,000 and 60,000 migrants breached the frontier earlier this week.

The death toll has climbed to 67, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, the Spanish government said Saturday.

A handful of exhausted migrants who swam to Ceuta’s urban Tarajal beach Saturday morning were met by soldiers who escorted them back across the border. Spain’s interior ministry says the majority of those who entered the Spanish territory in North Africa have already returned to Morocco.

“We are relentless against those who break the law,” Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told journalists in Ceuta on Saturday.

Questioned how this massive border breach could have happened given the heavy security on both sides of the border and whether Morocco posed a threat to Ceuta, Marlaska defended the government in Rabat.

“The events require an evaluation by Spain and Morocco,” he said. But it was the cooperation with its neighbors that allowed Spain “to revert the situation in 24 hours.”

“Morocco is not a threat to Ceuta, or to the rest of Spain. It is a reliable partner,” Marlaska emphasized.

After days of chaos and streets packed with people who had hoped for a better life in Spain, residents of Ceuta woke up Saturday to an uneasy calm.

Even so, security in the autonomous city of 84,000 remained bruised.

“Life in this city has been disrupted as a result of the border incident,” said Ceuta’s President Juan Jesús Vivas.

“The return of people has begun satisfactorily but the process must be completed,” he said. “The city has not yet returned to normal.”

In the Moroccan city of Tangier, about 75 kilometers (46 miles) west of Ceuta, the main railway station was busy with people returning from Ceuta or the border. Some slept on the ground, exhausted, as passersby watched from a distance.

“I tried to cross, but I failed. I stayed near the border with Ceuta for two days, but I couldn’t find anything to eat,” said Abdalah, an aspiring migrant who asked that his last name not be published out of fear of retaliation for trying to cross illegally.

On the road leading to the Moroccan town of Fnideq, which borders Ceuta, many migrants were seen walking toward the fence, some barefoot, apparently hoping to try their luck.

Taxi drivers and bus operators were refusing to take them, fearing retaliation from authorities.

Police officers were deployed along the road, stopping and checking every vehicle heading toward Fnideq.

But some who made it to Ceuta were determined to stay. Among them was Mohamed Hatri, a 23-year-old Moroccan.

“They’ve closed everything down so that we can’t buy anything to eat, to force us to return to our country,” he said.

“But even if they close it down … we’re round to stay here, whether we’re hungry or not.” —— Oubachir reported from Fnideq, Morocco. Renata Brito in Barcelona, Spain contributed to this report.

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