Migrants storm Spanish border - what's happening in Ceuta and why | BBC News

We've never seen scenes like this before.

Tens of thousands of migrants have now made it from Morocco into this Spanish sliver of North Africa.

Madrid is deploying military units to its border with Morocco in an effort to restore order.

Ceuta is a Spanish city.Spain's far -right Vox party called this an invasion.

The images are stark, so are the numbers.About 60 ,000 migrants have crossed into Spain's North African territory of Ceuta from Morocco in the last 24 hours.That's according to Ceuta's president.At least 43 others died during the crossing.Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the situation as an attack.He said all illegal migrants would be returned to Morocco as soon as possible.

Officials say that more than 35 ,000 have returned to Morocco voluntarily so far.Over the next 10 minutes or so, we will look at why it has happened and reaction to it.But first, one of the big questions a lot of people are asking is where exactly is Ceuta?Here's a quick explanation.

Ceuta is a Spanish North African territory.

It is on Morocco's northern coast and is separated from mainland Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar and has long been a focal point for migrants attempting to reach Europe.

Along with its larger sister city Melilla, situated some 400 kilometers further south along the coast, together they form the European Union's only land borders with Africa.

They have long been a flashpoint in diplomatic relations between Morocco and Spain.

Morocco does not officially recognize them as Spanish territory.

They trace their Spanish past back to the 15th century.

Historically, both port cities developed as military and trade centers linking Africa to Europe.

Since 1995, they have enjoyed a limited degree of self -government.

So what exactly has happened in Ceuta over the past 24 hours?Our Southern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford explains.

These images are of thousands of migrants suddenly rushing towards Morocco's border with Ceuta, a tiny sliver of land that belongs to Spain.They swam across in such huge numbers that the border effectively collapsed.There was chaos.The swim isn't long but some people clearly struggled and several dozen have drowned.Those who did make it to shore, though, were euphoric.

So why Ceuta?

Well, it's a spot where Europe and Africa meet directly.A stepping stone, something, on the way to a better life.It's just a few square miles in size and with around 80 ,000 inhabitants.So 50 ,000 more arriving in just one day was quite something.Spain has now sent troops and police to help keep the peace and to reinforce the border.But there are also questions about what Morocco did or didn't do to stop people crossing.

Right now, it's not happy with Spain because of Spain's relations with Algeria, not a friend of Morocco.Spain's government is playing that down because it needs help from Morocco now to be able to send people back there.Many have already gone, but many thousands more are still in Ceuta and unsure of what happens next.

CBS News reporter Aidan Stretch is in Ceuta and sent us this update.

Over the last 48 hours, tens of thousands of people have poured across the border from Morocco into this tiny Spanish enclave of Ceuta.You can see many of them are now lined up here in the water, ready to come home.Many of them told us that they came here in search of money, of food.One of them told us that he wanted to play European soccer.They haven't found that here yet.Some people that we spoke to said that they haven't been able to find food for 24 hours and are now lining up to return home voluntarily.

So that's what's happening on the ground, but why are the migrants opting to go via this route?That's a question for our global population correspondent, Stephanie Hegarty.

Well, for one, it's a relatively easy crossing compared to other ways to get from Africa to Europe.It's the only land border connecting the EU and Africa.It's a short swim from one place to the other or a climb over several fences.And that border is heavily secured.But as we've seen, it's relatively easy when there's this number of people to overwhelm those border forces.

Well, this is the biggest mass crossing for five years in Ceuta.So why is it happening now?Here's Stephanie again.

So earlier this month, Spain's Supreme Court ruled that migrants who reach the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Meilla from Morocco by sea cannot be returned to Morocco without their being given the chance to claim asylum.So it's possible that that is what inspired all of these people to cross now.But it's not clear exactly how such a large number of people, tens of thousands of people, coordinated and organized to make this move in one go.Most of these people do seem to be North African.black, not sub -Saharan African, for the most part, and from what the Spanish authorities are telling us, they seem to be Moroccan.

What's been the reaction from Spain to the influx of migrants from Morocco?The Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, condemned it as an attack and violation of Spanish sovereignty.Take a listen to what he said.

Ceuta is a Spanish city, and the scenes we saw yesterday I condemn in the most energetic way.I reject them.I condemn them.I condemn them as deplorable.They were a violation of the territorial integrity of a Spanish city, the Spanish city of Ceuta.

" Several European leaders have expressed concern, some promising to tighten border controls.The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said no one should be allowedinto the EU without following the rules.In a moment we'll hear from Emanuele Loperfido, an MP for the Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni's Brothers of Italy party, but first here's the UK government minister John Healey.

We've never seen scenes like this before.What it shows is that illegal immigration is an international problem and we're working really closely with countries across the world to try and deal with these terrible people traffickers.

control who is entering in the European Union.So that is what we are asking to Spain.It is just to say that there is something possible inside the European Union to have a temporary suspension of the Schengen Agreement.That is what we are eventually thinking about the situation with Spain, because there are thousands and thousands of migrants that are arriving in this Spanish city.It is not only Italy that is eventually Thinking about that, there is also the Finnish Prime Minister that already stated that Giorgio Meloni was doing correctly, and France already announced very severe control on the border with Spain.

So that's a flavour of the reaction from Europe, but what about from Morocco?BBC Monitoring's Gregory Holyoake has been looking at what has been coming out from the country.

So the official response in Morocco itself seems to be one of almost deafening silence.We in monitoring have not observed any comments by the king or officials within Rabat or the kingdom.There has been some reporting in pro -government media but it has generally suggested a positive picture of cooperation between Rabat and Madrid.In opposition media there's been more questions that have been coming out about why people are trying to leave in the first place.

Ceuta and Melilla.long been a focal point for migrants attempting to reach Europe.Gregory has more on previous incidents at the border.

Now, this certainly isn't the first time this has happened.Just a few years ago in 2021, we saw a similar influx of people coming in, up to 8 ,000 is what was being reported at the time, coming into these two enclaves at the top end of Morocco.We saw reporting at the time and even now being referred back to that that was also a sort of pressure technique that Morocco might be using over Spain's position towards Western Sahara as well.There has been a very long dispute between Spain and Morocco over sovereignty of these two areas as well.There has been a lot of kind of quotations and citations in Moroccan media saying that they are occupied territories and that this is showing that they are not sustainable as Spanish territory going forward.So we will have to see what happens with the diplomatic fallout.

And finally, let's look at the migrant numbers across Europe.How many people make in each year?Back to our global population correspondent, Stephanie Hegarty, who has been looking at the numbers.

So the UN's International Organization for Migration has estimates for how many migrants cross into Europe in these irregular routes every year.And last year, their estimate was 150 ,000 people for the whole year for all of the different routes into Europe.But that's actually a decrease from the year before of 300 ,000 people.Most of those people are coming through different routes, through the central Mediterranean, from Tunisia or Libya to Italy, and then a huge number also from Turkey into Cyprus, Bulgaria or Greece.When it comes to this route that we're talking about, it was much smaller numbers.So for the whole of Spain, there were last year only about 36 ,000 migrants entering Spain through most of them on the much more dangerous routes.

And that is all you need to know about the migrants in Ceuta.