Spain has announced it was installing a 500-meter-long (1,600-foot) containment barrier on the sea border between its North African territory of Ceuta and neighbouring Morocco after between 50,000 and 60,000 migrants breached the frontier earlier this week.
A floating pneumatic barrier was installed off the coast of Ceuta near the Tarajal breakwater, according to a report by the New York Times.
The inflatable pneumatic barrier spans 500 metres in length, sitting 30 to 70 centimetres above the water and dropping 1 metre below the surface. It is reinforced by an outer line of anchored buoys provided by the Spanish Navy. A designated channel between the structural lines allows Guardia Civil vessels to continuously monitor and patrol the maritime border.
According to the data given by the Spanish government, the death toll in the Ceuta crisis climbed to 67, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross the breakwater barrier.
What the Spanish government said on the Ceuta crisis
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez slammed the reaction of some other European Union leaders to the events in Ceuta, saying calls for Spain to be suspended from the EU’s borderless Schengen zone were “driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has threatened to suspend Italy’s participation in the Schengen Agreement with Spain, and Italy has reimposed border controls on people arriving from Spain by air and sea.
Also read: ‘No food in Ceuta’, ‘kicked badly’: Why thousands of migrants returned day after entering Spain
Spain‘s interior ministry has said the majority of those who entered the territory have already returned to Morocco.
“We are relentless against those who break the law,” Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told journalists in Ceuta on Saturday.
Questioned how this massive border breach could have happened, given the heavy security on both sides of the border, and whether Morocco posed a threat to Ceuta, Marlaska defended the government in Rabat.
“The events require an evaluation by Spain and Morocco,” he said. But it was the cooperation with its neighbours that allowed Spain “to reverse the situation in 24 hours.”
“Morocco is not a threat to Ceuta, or to the rest of Spain. It is a reliable partner,” Marlaska emphasised.
EU leaders call for coordinated response
The leaders of 22 EU countries called for a coordinated response to the situation in Ceuta.
In a letter to top EU officials, released Saturday by the Danish prime minister’s office, the countries asked the EU’s current Irish presidency to urgently convene an extraordinary videoconference of the bloc’s interior ministers.
“We cannot allow uncontrolled mass crossings, the instrumentalisation of migration or other hybrid threats to create the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible. That a migrant’s illegal entry can turn into legal stay,” the letter said. “Such a perception would encourage further attempts, undermine confidence in our common migration policy and have repercussions for all Member States.”
The letter was signed by the leaders of Italy, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and Sweden.
Pedro Sánchez also asked for a videoconference of EU interior ministers to “enable us to establish a common response to situations of this kind and reaffirm that the security of our external borders is a shared responsibility of all Member States, and not only of those on the Union’s front line.”
