The death toll climbed to 67, including some who drowned and others who died in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, the Spanish government said Saturday.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez slammed the reaction of some other European Union leaders to the events in Ceuta, saying calls for Spain to be suspended from the EU's borderless Schengen zone were "driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest." A handful of exhausted migrants who swam to Ceuta's urban Tarajal beach Saturday morning were met by soldiers who escorted them back across the border. Spain's interior ministry says the majority of those who entered the territory have returned to Morocco.
"We are relentless against those who break the law," Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told journalists in Ceuta Saturday.
Questioned how the border breach could have happened given the heavy security on the border and whether Morocco posed a threat to Ceuta, Marlaska defended the government in Rabat. "The events require an evaluation by Spain and Morocco," he said. But it was the cooperation with its neighbours that allowed Spain "to reverse the situation in 24 hours." "Morocco is not a threat to Ceuta, or to the rest of Spain. It is a reliable partner," Marlaska emphasised. (AP)