A crying 12-year-old boy in Ceuta pleaded with Spanish soldiers not to be returned to Morocco, a video filmed by the Associated Press on Monday (3 August) shows.
Metres from the border, a Spanish army lieutenant colonel stopped the repatriation after pressure from local residents, who said the child was a minor. The boy was handed over to the Spanish Civil Guard.
It comes after hundreds of migrants established a makeshift camp on a beach in the Spanish exclave, which borders Morocco, as local authorities grapple with the aftermath of a massive border surge last week.
Spain estimates that 69,500 migrants have been returned to Morocco over the past four days, a figure that surpasses initial projections of around 50,000 arrivals in Ceuta last Thursday.
