Thousands of migrants storm onto Spanish beach after overwhelming police

Thousands of migrants from Morocco have swarmed a Spanish beach in north Africa and overwhelmed police trying to stop them from crossing.

Migrants are ‘massively entering from the sea’ into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, the Guardia Civil said.

The region’s government has begged Madrid to deploy the army and close the Moroccan border, warning a ‘total humanitarian and social emergency’ is taking place.

State television TVE said that 2,000 to 3,000 youths had crossed into Spain by sea, with some reportedly scaling the border fence.

Images showed migrants paddling from Morocco into Ceuta using inflatable inner tubes and other flotation devices.

Video also showed crowds shouting ‘Long live Spain’ as they rushed into the territory.

The president of Ceuta, Juan Jesus Vivas, said: ‘We are in a situation of total humanitarian and social emergency.

‘In the past few days more than 1,500 migrants, both adults and minors, have come to Ceuta by sea.

‘The reception centres are saturated – there is no more room for anyone in them and according to yesterday’s figures the number of people entering is more than 200 a day.’

Ceuta, along with Spanish city Melilla, represents the EU’s only land border with Africa.

Both regions have faced occasional influxs of migrants trying to reach Europe.

This rush appears to be on a similar scale to one that occurred in May 2021, when some 10,000 Moroccan and sub-Saharan youths entered the enclave in days

Spain’s Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that ⁠migrants intercepted at sea ​while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot be summarily returned under the enclaves’ special border-rejection regime.

The Guardia Civil spokesperson told Reuters: ‘It has been a slow trickle since the Supreme Court’s ruling, but today has been an explosion.’

Spain’s Interior Ministry said it was working closely with Morocco to address the surge in migrants.

They blamed people-smuggling networks for exploiting the Supreme Court’s ruling to encourage undocumented migration.

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