Spain installs sea barrier on Ceuta's border with Morocco after frontier rush that killed 67

CEUTA, Spain (AP) — Spain on Saturday installed a 500-meter-long (1,600-foot) barrier on the sea border between its North African territory of Ceuta and neighboring Morocco after tens of thousands of migrants breached the frontier earlier in the week.

At least 67 migrants died, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, the Spanish government said Saturday. The sudden arrival of 50,000 to 60,000 migrants in the territory on Thursday and Friday sparked a humanitarian crisis and reignited the immigration debate in Europe and beyond, though most of the migrants soon went back.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez slammed the reaction of some EU leaders to the events in Ceuta, saying calls for Spain to be suspended from the EU's borderless Schengen zone were "driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest."

"We are relentless against those who break the law," Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told journalists.

"Morocco is not a threat to Ceuta, or to the rest of Spain. It is a reliable partner," Marlaska said.

Italy has threatened to suspend the open-border Schengen agreement with Spain and was reimposing border controls for people arriving from Spain by air and sea. Ceuta is not part of the Schengen area, however, and border checks are carried out when traveling from the exclave to continental Spain or other European countries in the Schengen zone.

"In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarizing and unlawful reaction," Sánchez wrote in his letter.