Death toll in Spain border crisis reaches 67 as tens of thousands cross back in to Morocco
The death toll from a border crisis in Ceuta, Spain, has risen to 67 following a massive influx of migrants attempting to cross from Morocco. Spanish authorities are installing new containment barriers while managing the return of thousands of migrants to Morocco.
Why it matters
This incident highlights the ongoing humanitarian and geopolitical tensions surrounding migration routes into the European Union.
CEUTA, Spain — The death toll in Spain's Ceuta border crisis with Morocco has climbed to 67, the Spanish government said Saturday. They included some who drowned and some who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier.
Spain announced it was installing a 500-meter-long containment barrier along the breakwater fence into the sea after some 60,000 migrants breached the tiny Spanish territory's frontier between Thursday and Friday.
A handful of exhausted migrants who swam to Ceuta's urban Tarajal beach Saturday morning were met by soldiers who escorted them back across the border. Spain's interior ministry says the majority of those who entered the Spanish territory in North Africa have already returned to Morocco.
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