MADRID, Aug. 4– Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said on Tuesday that around 70,000 of the roughly 72,000 migrants who crossed into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco last week have since returned to Morocco.
Marlaska made the remarks at a press conference following an emergency video meeting of European Union (EU) interior ministers on the migrant influx into Ceuta.
He said all EU member states and Schengen-associated countries participated in the meeting in a constructive manner and recognized the swift response of the Spanish authorities to the crisis.
Marlaska said Ceuta has special arrangements under the Schengen framework and that no one can leave the enclave for mainland Spain without undergoing effective document checks. The Schengen area was therefore never at risk, he said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said earlier that not a single person involved in the mass crossing had reached mainland Spain or any other part of the EU from Ceuta.
According to an EU summary of Tuesday’s meeting, participating countries expressed “strong solidarity” with Spain and agreed to improve the bloc’s detection and early-warning systems to identify similar large-scale movements at an earlier stage.
The Spanish government’s delegation in Ceuta confirmed on Tuesday that three more bodies linked to the mass crossing had been recovered since Monday, raising the confirmed death toll from the incident in Ceuta to 75.
Many of the victims drowned or died in crowd crushes while attempting to enter Ceuta by crossing the Tarajal breakwater area. Spain’s Civil Guard is continuing to search the coastline for missing people and has opened dedicated channels to receive missing-person reports.
Spain’s central government estimates that about 2,500 migrants remain in Ceuta, while the local government puts the figure at between 3,000 and 5,000. According to the local authorities, at least 1,000 of those remaining are minors.
Spanish Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Elma Saiz announced on Tuesday that the central government would provide Ceuta with an additional 25 million euros (about 29 million U.S. dollars) to accommodate and care for unaccompanied minors in the enclave. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
