Spanish Prime Minister Travels to Ceuta After 60,000 Refugees Arrive

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez went to Ceuta on Friday after an estimated 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave on Thursday.

Crowds entered by land and sea, overwhelming border guards, and many of the dead drowned, CNN reported. Juan Jesús Vivas, president of Ceuta’s autonomous government, gave the estimate of 60,000 crossings.

Sánchez called the mass crossings a "violation of Spain’s territorial integrity" after arriving in Ceuta, described as a spit of Spanish territory jutting into the Mediterranean from the Moroccan coast. "What happened yesterday deserves our full reproach, our full condemnation," he said.

Spanish authorities said they would try to expel people who had entered illegally as quickly as possible. CNN reported that a court ruling has placed new restrictions on special "border rejection" rules that allow immediate expulsions, and Sánchez linked the crossings to a recent supreme court ruling that migrants arriving by sea cannot be returned to Morocco.

"The government of Spain will use all the instruments of the state, all the resources of the state, to guarantee the security of the people of Ceuta," Sánchez said. Authorities appeared to have stemmed the flow of new arrivals, CNN reported, and said it had contacted Spain’s interior ministry for comment.

European leaders also responded to the crisis. Italy’s Prime Minister Georgia Meloni said on Instagram that she was ready to seek "extraordinary tools" including suspension of Spain’s Schengen membership, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez ordered extra checks at the Spanish border, and EU President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that "we cannot allow anyone to come to our Union without abiding by our rules."