Ceuta’s leader says 100 died in border rush as up to 5,000 still in enclave

At least 100 people died during mass migrant crossings from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, the city’s leader says, as thousands of undocumented people remain in the enclave.

Juan Jesus Vivas, head of Ceuta’s local government, gave the death toll while testifying on Thursday before the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in Brussels.

He said between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants remain in Ceuta, which he described as still reeling from the crossings last week.

European Union migration commissioner Magnus Brunner told the same hearing that Spain had assured Brussels the crisis would not affect Schengen, the EU’s passport-free travel zone. But he warned Ceuta had exposed a deeper weakness: Europe’s border security depends too heavily on the cooperation of a single neighbouring country.

“As long as control depends on the goodwill of one neighbouring state, we remain … vulnerable,” he said.

About 72,000 migrants swam or crossed on foot from Morocco into Ceuta last Thursday and Friday, according to Spanish authorities, in one of the largest movements into EU territory in recent years.

Vivas called it an “invasion” – and he noted the number of those who entered was roughly equal to the enclave’s entire population of more than 80,000.

Spain’s government declined to attend the hearing; the European Commission attended in its place.

Vivas said Ceuta’s two reception centres, for adults and unaccompanied minors, had “collapsed” under the strain, and that authorities had not disclosed the exact number of migrants still in the city due to a lack of resources.

He said local officials had warned Madrid about rising crossing numbers before the surge, but their warnings were not acted on, and that Moroccan authorities had refused to engage with Ceuta throughout the crisis.

On ⁠Monday, Morocco rejected suggestions it was responsible for the surge, saying Spain should have anticipated the consequences of a court ruling that migrants arriving by swimming could not be immediately deported if no ⁠physical border barrier had been crossed.

Security forces, Vivas said, have still not been deployed in the city “with the required intensity”.

“We faced a humanitarian emergency of enormous proportions, compounded by disturbances to public order and a serious risk to public safety,” Vivas told MEPs, renewing calls for the immediate deportation of migrants who entered irregularly.

He said unaccompanied minors could only be returned with their consent, and that local authorities had no information on whether any previously expelled extremists were among the arrivals.

“Our border is porous and vulnerable,” Vivas added.