Local media reports claim 49,000 migrants stormed the tiny Spanish exclave of Ceuta on the North African coast
MADRID – The chaos caused by the influx of thousands of people from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta has sparked debate across the continent, thrusting EU border policy to the top of the bloc’s political agenda.
After days of rising tensions, waves of people entered the Spanish city in North Africa on Thursday – arriving both by sea and by breaking through the land border – putting local authorities on high alert.
Madrid deployed the army and closed the border of Melilla, its other overseas enclave bordering Morocco, in response to the huge inflow of irregular migrants, which has triggered Spain’s biggest migration crisis to date.
With social media awash with images of thousands of people pouring into the small town of 84,000 inhabitants, political reactions from across Europe were not long in coming.
