Spanish authorities began installing a 500-metre floating barrier off the coast of Ceuta on Saturday following an unprecedented migrant surge from Morocco that left at least 67 people dead, according to Spanish officials.
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The pneumatic barrier, which stands 30 to 70 centimetres above water and extends up to one metre below the surface, is being laid on the Tarajal breakwater, one of the main entry points used by migrants attempting to reach the Spanish enclave. An outer line of anchored naval buoys will reinforce the structure, with a channel between the barriers allowing Civil Guard vessels to patrol the area.
The move came after an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people crossed into Ceuta by land and sea from Thursday in one of the largest migrant surges at a European Union land border with Africa. More than 48,000 had returned to Morocco within 48 hours, Spain's Interior Ministry said.
In Ceuta on Friday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain announced that the country would install buoys to “create a containment barrier, a physical barrier, if only a visual one,” to strengthen the border.
He described the crossings as a violation of Spain's territorial sovereignty and blamed human traffickers for spreading misinterpretations of a recent Supreme Court ruling that prompted the influx.
The crisis has sparked political division in Europe. Twenty-two EU governments called for an emergency meeting of interior ministers, urging the bloc to help Madrid regain control of its border. Italy's right-wing government announced it was suspending Schengen arrangements with Spain for one month.
Sánchez criticised governments that called for Spain's exclusion from the Schengen zone. "In the current international context, the EU cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction," he wrote.
Conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo dismissed the barrier as inadequate. "You don't secure a border by putting buoys in the sea," he said on Friday.
On the ground, Spanish police and soldiers patrolled Tarajal beach on Saturday as the vast majority of migrants had left the city. However, tensions flared Friday night when a group of at least 50 young Spanish men gathered in the city centre shouting "To Morocco!" at migrants resting in Plaza de los Reyes. Some of the men wore face coverings and chased migrants who fled, nearly sparking a fight, as the group chanted "Long live Spain!"
Spain's Interior Ministry said the people who entered Ceuta irregularly could not travel onwards to mainland Spain or elsewhere in the Schengen zone, with police identity checks in place for those leaving by sea or air.
