At least 18 migrants have died while attempting to reach Ceuta, Spain’s exclave on the North African coast, after thousands of people crossed from Morocco and entered the small Spanish territory, prompting Madrid to deploy the military to the border.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is expected to travel to Ceuta on Friday morning alongside Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska as authorities confront the escalating border crisis.
Rachid Sbihi, head of a local workers’ association representing Civil Guard officers, said the situation had become a “serious humanitarian crisis.”
“People are still entering. The reinforcements that have arrived are only helping the injured and other humanitarian efforts,” he said.
With no shelter available, thousands of migrants — among them unaccompanied minors — have been forced to sleep in parks and on pavements, while others wander through the streets with nowhere to go, Sbihi said. “It’s chaotic.”
Sbihi said many of the 18 victims drowned, while others died in the crush of people trying to get across the breakwater fence at Tarajal beach.
Video recorded on Thursday showed large groups, mostly Moroccans, moving around the breakwaters at Tarajal beach and spilling onto nearby roads.
Although most of those seen appeared to be young men, the crowds also included families, women and small children.
“Viva España!” some shouted to a freelance photographer working for the AP.
It was not immediately clear what prompted so many migrants to cross to Ceuta.
