Some 800 sub-Saharan migrants attempted to cross the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Ceuta at 6:45am through a high fence. While 602 of them succeeded, 15 law enforcement officers were injured in the clashes and later taken to a hospital, the Spanish Civil Guard reported.
Migrants attempted to cross the seven-meter high fence separating Morocco from Spain at 6:35 a.m. They threw stones, homemade shielrs, Molotov cocktails, feces and hashish at law enforcement representatives and used sprays as flamethrowers. The migrants also tried to cut the barbed wire on the fence with scissors and hammers. Once inside Spanish territory, they threw stones at cars of the Civil Guard.
Border agents arrested hundreds on the Moroccan side and more were detained in Ceuta, El Pais reports.
According to The Local.es, the scramble over the barrier is the biggest in Ceuta since February 2017, when more than 850 migrants entered the overseas territory over four days.
It comes as Spain becomes the number one destination for migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat, surpassing Italy with 19,586 arrivals so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
592 migrants who managed to cross the border had applied with the International Organization for Migration; 132 of them were injured, and 11 migrants were taken to hospitals.
Since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration, 3,125 migrants crossed the Spanish border through the enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta, not including those who crossed the border on Thursday. Ceuta is a Spanish autonomous city in North Africa, sharing a four-mile-long border with Morocco. Rabat has repeatedly called on Madrid to transfer the sovereignty over Ceuta and the neighboring city of Melilla. The residents of the city insist the territories should remain part of Spain.
Maybe it’s time for Trump to give Spain some advice on that whole “Wall on the Southern border” thing..
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