Over 150 migrants storm through Spain’s Ceuta enclave fence – officials

30 Aug, 2019 10:54 / Updated 6 years ago
RT
Spanish warship 'Audaz' arrives to collect some 15 migrants who had been on board the charity ship 'Open Arms', off the Italian island of Lampedusa, August 23, 2019. © Reuters / Mauro Buccarello

More than 150 migrants crossed the border fence at Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta early on Friday, Reuters reported. At least six Spanish police officers suffered minor injuries as they tried to stop them, a government spokesman in the city said.

The Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on Morocco’s northern coast are a magnet for illegal African migrants trying to reach Europe. The enclaves are surrounded by a 6-metre-high fence topped with razor wire.

“Around 250 migrants tried to jump over the fence and some 155 made it,” the spokesman said. “It has not been as violent as in the past.”

The incident in Ceuta coincided with the arrival in Spain of a Spanish warship carrying 15 migrants who had been stranded at sea following Italy’s refusal to take them in.

RT