More than 100 migrants have been detained after they attempted to break into Ceuta during a second wave of mass crossings.
Moroccan police arrested 111 people as they tried to enter the Spanish exclave in North Africa, including 109 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
Another two Moroccan citizens were arrested in the nearby Moroccan city of Fnideq.
The initial crossing last month saw more than 72,000 illegal immigrants storm the border on July 30 in what was dubbed the single largest illegal influx into the European Union.
Read Also: Man, 24, dies after suffering serious stab wounds during broad-daylight attack
At least 88 of those making the first crossing died, either from drowning or being crushed in the chaos engulfing the exclave.
Yesterday, police donning riot gear deployed tear gas to disperse the groups sitting atop hills around 3km from the Spanish border.
Spanish media revealed that journalists in Fnideq were instructed to leave the city “immediately” by Morocco’s interior ministry, giving no reason as to why.
“We’ll continue to deploy whatever personnel are necessary to restore normality as soon as possible and prevent events like those of 30 July from happening again,” Spain’s interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said on Thursday.
In shared footage, groups of officers could be seen escorting migrants from the area on top of the hills.
Over in the city of Ceuta, Spanish troops were stationed outside supermarkets while police forces roamed the streets in a bid to stop a repeat of the mass crossing.
Some 5,000 migrants have remained in the Spanish exclave since flooding the border in July.
However, the number of those who have actually stayed in the region and were not returned is debated across EU member states.
LATEST FROM CEUTA:
- Second wave of Ceuta invasion BLOCKED as armed police put end to migrant raid
- EU civil war explodes as Italian foreign minister blasts ‘disproportionate’ response to crisis
- Migrant plunges to his death from mountain while trying to paraglide his way into Ceuta
The same incident triggered a fiery spat between Spain and Italy, as Giorgia Meloni raised concerns over border security.
On July 31, the Italian Prime Minister threatened to suspend the Schengen Zone with Italy, ending free movement between the two countries.
“The images coming from Ceuta are striking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a concrete threat to the security of Europe’s borders,” she said.
Moroccan authorities have stayed on high alert as they monitored social media posts goading on individuals to carry out a second mass crossing yesterday.
Officials warned they would prosecute the organisers and participants of such a campaign.
Since the first storming of the borders, the Spanish military as well as extra police forces were pulled in to protect the area from illegal arrivals.
In Ceuta, there are now more than 1,600 officers to protect the Spanish city with a population of 80,000.
In the days following the mass crossing on July 30, the majority of illegal arrivals were returned to Morocco.
Our Standards:
The GB News Editorial Charter
