The Telegraph
Hannah Strange, Barcelona
This was the biggest entry of migrants at the Cueta border since February 2017, when 850 migrants crossed into the Spanish territory in four days Credit: REUTERS TV
More than 700 sub-Saharan migrants on Thursday stormed the border fence surrounding the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in Morocco, with dozens injured in an incursion of “unprecedented violence”.
Sixteen migrants and ten officers from Spain’s Guardia Civil received hospital treatment following Thursday morning’s incident, during which the group bombarded agents with quicklime, sticks, stones and bags of excrement as well as aerosols used as flame throwers, the force said in a statement.
The incursion, which comes days after Spain officially overtook Italy in migrant arrivals by sea, occurred at around 6.30 am when the men used angle grinders and shears to cut through the outer and inner layers of the border fence.
The group also bore defensive equipment such as home-made shields and body armour, the Guardia Civil said, and once through the fence continued to attack agents and security vehicles. The force later recovered “Molotov cocktails and bags of hashish”, it added.
The group scrambled over the razor wire fences “all of a sudden, with much violence”, a Guardia Civil spokesperson in Ceuta said.
The 602 migrants who crossed into Spanish territory were transported to a temporary migrant reception centre in Cueta, which had already been over capacity Credit: EFE News Agency / Alamy Live News
A Red Cross emergency team treated more than 130 people for injuries, the NGO said in a statement. The ten Guardia Civil officers were hospitalised after having been sprayed with “some type of acid, lime or white liquid” and received treatment for burns, respiratory and cognitive issues, but were later discharged. Two of the migrants required surgery for “deep cuts”, while others were discharged after treatment for cuts and fractures.
The 602 migrants who ultimately made their way onto Spanish soil have been taken into Ceuta’s temporary migrant reception centre, a facility already overflowing with 650 current residents for its 520 places.
It is not the first such incursion across the borders of Ceuta and Melilla, the two Spanish outposts in North Africa which are seen by many fleeing poverty and conflict as their best hope of reaching a new life in Europe.
But it is the first entry of such a magnitude into Ceuta since February 2017, when 850 migrants crossed into the territory in four days. Security forces speaking to Europapress said the level of violence employed in the assault was “unprecedented”.
It also comes as the Spanish system struggles to cope with surging numbers of arrivals. The country is now the largest gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, with 19,586 people landing on its shores so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Despite the unexpected violence, many migrants celebrated after they crossed the border Credit: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SPAIN-CEUTA
Most in Spain welcomed the decision of Pedro Sanchez, the new Socialist prime minister, to grant safe harbour to the NGO rescue ship the Aquarius and its 630 migrants, after it was turned away by Italy in June.
But there is increasing concern that Spain simply cannot cope with the numbers of arrivals. NGOs say the country’s asylum system is collapsed, with thousands already waiting for spaces, and that more resources are desperately needed. In Andalusia, where the Spanish coastguard has rescued more than 1200 people from rafts since Monday, authorities are raising the alarm over the pressure on infrastructure, with migrants sleeping in converted sports halls, on boats and even on a police station patio.
Experts say the Spanish surge is partly the result of the crackdown on crossings from Libya to Italy, both by the EU and the new populist government in Rome.
Matteo Salvini, Italy’s new far Right interior minister, on Thursday protested to the leading Roman Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana after it compared him to Satan on its cover, and said his decision to ban migrant rescue boats from the country’s ports was against “the Gospel”.
He also drew protest Thursday after authorities began clearing a minority Roma camp in the Italian capital, leaving hundreds homeless. Meanwhile a close adviser to Pope Francis condemned a proposal by Mr Salvini’s League party to make the display of crucifixes in public spaces obligatory.
