A thousand migrants arrive in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in one day, a record
Dos migrantes hablan con la Guardia Civil española, el 17 de mayo de 2021 in Ceuta Antonio Sempere AFP
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A thousand migrants, including 300 minors, managed to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighboring Morocco on Monday, May 17th, arriving by swimming or on foot when the tide permitted, Spanish authorities said, citing a "
record
" This is not the first time that around 100 migrants have tried to join the European Union.
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Men, women and children used inflatable buoys, others inflatable boats, and some even swam to the Spanish territory of Ceuta.
According to a spokesperson for the Spanish Civil Guard, the tide was so low in some places that you could practically reach Ceuta by walking.
The first arrivals took place in the morning, when these migrants had left the beaches located a few kilometers south of Ceuta during the night,
Migrants regularly try to reach Ceuta by climbing the high fences that separate this enclave from Morocco, by swimming in such a massive way, this is the second time.
At the end of April, a hundred Moroccan migrants had already
reached this Spanish territory by swimming
.
The majority of them were subsequently deported to Morocco.
These arrivals are part of a context of diplomatic tensions between Madrid and Rabat.
At issue: the presence in Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, the independence movement of Western Sahara.
Brahim Ghali was treated in a Spanish hospital
for the Covid-19 in mid-April, which greatly displeased the Moroccan authorities.
For more than 45 years, the conflict in Western Sahara has pitted Morocco against the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria.
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