Most Migrants Who Crossed Into Ceuta Have Returned To Morocco—As Death Toll Rises To 34

Spanish authorities on Friday afternoon said a majority of the 60,000 migrants who crossed into the Spanish Territory of Ceuta from Morocco on Thursday have returned to their home country after sparking a humanitarian crisis deemed "absolutely unsustainable."

At least 48,300 of the migrants who crossed the border into the Spanish enclave had returned to Morocco by Friday afternoon but thousands more remain despite warnings from the Ceuta government that there aren't resources in the small territory to feed or house them.

The death toll rose to 57 on Friday on the Spanish side of the border, Reuters reported, including some who drowned and others who were crushed while trying to climb the breakwater that holds the border fence.

Other European countries moved to protect their own borders in the wake of the crisis, and French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday he'd asked his interior minister to strengthen controls at the country's border with Spain by adding more police, aircraft and drones.

Italy temporarily suspended an agreement that allows people to enter the country freely from Spain without a passport or border check, a move Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said was "a necessary choice to safeguard the security of our citizens and defend the European borders."

In a statement issued Friday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared the breach at the border and the large flow of migrants as "a violation of Spain's territorial integrity," as his government deployed the country's military to address the situation.

Opposition party politicians in Spain and Europe pointed to Sanchez's pro-immigration stances as the reason for the surge, referencing a policy his government implemented earlier this year that would give about half a million undocumented immigrants legal status in Spain.

Juan Jesus Vivas, Ceuta's President, called the crisis "a situation of absolute humanitarian and social emergency."

The exact reason behind Thursday's sudden surge is unclear, but it appears to have been driven by a combination of economic hardship in Morocco, misinformation about migrants being allowed to remain in Spain and the activity of trafficking networks. When asked by the New York Times why Moroccans surged over the border, a 24-year-old arrival said "because there's no work" in his home country. Migrants told Reuters they'd seen posts on Instagram and other platforms claiming that a Spanish court ruling meant people arriving by sea could not be immediately returned, although the ruling did not give migrants an automatic right to stay. Spanish officials have blamed traffickers for spreading similar misleading information, and there is a growing suspicion that Moroccan authorities initially failed to stop the crowds, intentionally allowing the surge to grow. Several people told the Times they'd been encouraged to enter Ceuta by Moroccan authorities, who reportedly said, 'Go that way, go that way." Morocco and Spain have denied that the event was deliberately engineered for political reasons.

It has long been thought that Morocco could use migration pressure as leverage against Spain for political reasons. While Ceuta is a Spanish territory, it sits directly on Morocco's border and Spain relies heavily on Moroccan cooperation to control migration in the enclave. Morocco has previously been accused of relaxing border controls during diplomatic disputes, making a sudden mass influx a potential way to demonstrate how difficult the migration problem could become if Morocco stops cooperating. The broader dispute is also partly tied to Western Sahara, a disputed desert territory in northwest Africa that has been claimed by both Morocco and an independence group called the Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria. Spain has supported Morocco's position on the territory, but recent Spanish moves - including closer engagement with Algeria and policies viewed as more favorable to Sahrawis - have created new friction with Morocco. In May 2021, Ceuta experienced a similar, sudden influx when more than 8,000 migrants poured in over just two days.