At least 60,000 migrants have crossed in recent days from Morocco into Spain's Ceuta enclave, authorities have said, as Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez arrived to manage the country's biggest migrant crisis in years.
Police also said on Friday that many more people are still arriving in the enclave.
Spanish authorities said they would try to expel those who had entered illegally as quickly as possible, despite a court ruling that has put some new restrictions on special "border rejection" rules that allow immediate expulsions.
Upon arrival in the enclave, Sánchez said "what has emerged from our talks with Moroccan authorities is that trafficking mafias took a self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling," he said. That interpretation "spread like wildfire in recent hours."
Ebullient migrants on Thursday were walking through the streets of Ceuta, thanking the Spanish police and calling out: "Bye bye Morocco, hello Spain."
