Migrants pour into Spain’s Ceuta from Morocco

Multiple thousands of migrants have streamed onto Spanish territory from Morocco in a matter of days, taking advantage of a new loophole after a Supreme Court ruling that ordered police to stop resisting migrants who came by sea.

The local government of Ceuta — a tiny slice of North Africa that is an exclave of Spanish territory otherwise surrounded by Morocco and the Mediterranean — has called on the national government in Madrid to declare a national emergency, deploy the army, and close the border as the city is overwhelmed by an enormous migrant wave. Certainly more than two thousand, with the full number unclear as the surge continues and local law enforcement finds itself unable to cope nor count, are reported to have swam around the small fenced breakwater that demarks the Moroccan and Spanish territorial line.

Earlier ⁠this month, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot be summarily returned under the enclaves’ special “border rejection” regime, which allows authorities to immediately send back people caught crossing the border fences. “It has been a slow ⁠trickle since ​the Supreme Court’s ruling, but today has been an explosion,” the Guardia Civil spokesperson told Reuters.

Ceuta and Melilla have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe. The government said 200 specialised police officers and 60 troops arrived from the Spanish mainland to reinforce Ceuta’s regular forces.