Last week’s rush of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta began with a trickle.
Encouraged by a handful of viral videos, including some posted by a Spanish news outlet intended to highlight the burden of migration pressures, the movement of a few dozen youths quickly turned into tens of thousands swimming en masse by last Thursday.
More than 80 people drowned or were crushed in a stampede, according to official tallies.
A catalyst came three weeks earlier, when Spain’s Supreme Court published a ruling saying migrants caught at sea could not be immediately pushed back at the border of Spain’s North African territories of Ceuta and Melilla. The ruling does not preclude their summary return afterwards, legal experts said.
Ceuta has long drawn migrants hoping to build a new life in Europe. But as misinterpretations of the ruling spread – including claims anyone who reached Ceuta, by sea or land, could not be returned – more and more people tried their luck.
