Ceuta Border Crisis Death Toll Reaches 67

Spain said Saturday the death toll in the Ceuta border crisis with Morocco had climbed to 67 as tens of thousands of migrants crossed into the enclave and many returned to Morocco, according to NPR.

The dead included people who drowned and others killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, the Spanish government said. Spain announced it was installing a 500-meter containment barrier along the breakwater fence into the sea after about 60,000 migrants breached the frontier between Thursday and Friday.

A handful of exhausted migrants swam to Ceuta's urban Tarajal beach on Saturday morning, where soldiers met them and escorted them back across the border. Spain's interior ministry said the majority of those who entered the Spanish territory in North Africa had already returned to Morocco.

After days of chaos and streets packed with people hoping for a better life in Spain, residents of Ceuta woke Saturday to an uneasy calm. “Life in this city has been disrupted as a result of the border incident,” said Ceuta's President Juan Jesus Vivas.

Vivas said the return process had begun but was not complete. “The city has not yet returned to normal,” he said of the autonomous city of 84,000 residents. Some migrants remained in Ceuta despite the returns.