Madrid said on Thursday it would dispatch soldiers to Ceuta to ensure security after hundreds of migrants entered Spain's north African exclave from neighboring Morocco and hundreds more headed there.The Spanish government's delegation in the enclave told AFP that the bodies of nine migrants who died while trying to reach Ceuta by swimming had been recovered.
Migration from Morocco into Spain's two north African territories, Ceuta and Melilla, has long been a politically sensitive issue between the two countries, as thousands cross the border at times.
Italy called on Thursday for Spain to be suspended from Europe's open-borders Schengen zone, prompting a backlash from Spain, which summoned the Italian envoy to Madrid.
AFP reporters saw a stream of adults and children, most of them soaked, entering the town of Ceuta after having swum there. Discarded flotation rings and clothes were discarded on the shore near where the border barrier meets the sea.
"The armed forces will reinforce the Civil Guard in the exercise of its powers and any others that may be necessary to maintain security in the city of Ceuta," Spain's interior ministry said.
