Spain: Thousands of migrants swim to Ceuta. The Italian government is considering suspending…

Hundreds of migrants entered Ceuta from Morocco today alone, joining the 1,500-2,000 who arrived in recent days, creating the most serious crisis in the Spanish enclave since 2021. Ceuta and the other Spanish enclave of Melilla, in Morocco, are the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. Hundreds of people entered en masse at midday through the border crossing in the southern part of the Autonomous City while Spanish Civil Guard officers stood by and watched. For their part, the police and Civil Guard unions denounced an “unsustainable” situation.

This is the largest influx of migrants into Ceuta since May 2021, when over 10,000 people entered from Morocco in just two days. Many migrants, many of whom arrived by swimming or on inflatable mattresses, entered the city amid shouts of joy, celebrating their arrival and thanking the Spanish police, while some shouted “Goodbye Morocco, welcome Spain!”

The Italian government is considering suspending Schengen with Spain

The government, sources at Palazzo Chigi learned, is considering suspending the Schengen Agreement with Spain in light of what is happening in Ceuta.

The comments of Tajani and Salvini

“I am in favor of closing the Schengen area with Spain and I have full confidence in Minister Piantedosi’s actions. Irregular and uncontrolled immigration represents a danger to national security. The images arriving from Ceuta demonstrate how the Madrid government’s decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to over 500,000 irregular immigrants is profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking.” This was written by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

For the other Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the League, Matteo Salvini, it is also “a duty to suspend Schengen to defend the borders and protect Italians,” the League leader writes in X.

Nine migrants dead attempting to reach Ceuta

The Guardia Civil today recovered the bodies of eight people, two of them in the last few hours, who allegedly attempted to swim into Ceuta. The Coast Guard recovered another body. This brings the total number of deaths in Ceuta to nine. The nine bodies were transferred to the Guardia Civil headquarters in the fishing port for autopsies. With today’s bodies, the number of migrants found dead in the waters off the coast of Ceuta this year has risen to 39.

Madrid to send soldiers to Ceuta

The Spanish government will send soldiers to Ceuta to ensure the security of the enclave following the arrival of thousands of migrants from Morocco. The Spanish Interior Ministry announced this. “The Armed Forces will strengthen the Civil Guard” to “maintain security in the city of Ceuta,” the ministry said.

According to Spanish media reports, an additional platoon (20 troops) has already been added to the 60 soldiers of the Reserve and Security Group permanently assigned to border surveillance, and two more, with 40 soldiers, will be deployed in the coming hours. The Interior Ministry did not provide figures on how many soldiers will be sent to the small 18.5-square-kilometer territory, except that the Civil Guard presence—currently 80 officers—will be nearly doubled. Divers and coast guard vessels will also be deployed.

The emergency in Ceuta

The Spanish Interior Ministry was quick to announce that it had agreed with Rabat to implement measures to repatriate “as soon as possible” to Morocco “all those who entered Ceuta illegally.” “We are in a situation of absolute humanitarian and social emergency,” warned Ceuta’s mayor, Juan Vivas, of the Popular Party, on Spanish public television TVE. “In recent days, over 1,500 migrants have arrived in Ceuta by sea,” at a rate of “200 people a day,” meaning that “the reception centers are overcrowded and overrun,” Vivas specified, calling for the border to be closed. Hundreds of people, including minors, gathered in the early afternoon at the border between the Moroccan town of Fnideq (Castillejos) and Ceuta, attempting to cross illegally by swimming or climbing over the border fence.