Ceuta (Spain):The death toll in Spain's Ceuta border crisis with Morocco has climbed to 67, the Spanish government said on Saturday.
Spain announced it was installing a containment barrier along the breakwater fence into the sea after tens of thousands of migrants breached the tiny Spanish territory's border this week.
About 60,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain's tiny Ceuta territory in the past 24 hours, Ceuta's president said on Friday, a figure that is equivalent to 70 per cent of the population of the city in North Africa.
But roughly half of the people who made the crossing soon made their way back voluntarily, the Spanish government said, after the sudden arrival of so many migrants triggered chaos and a humanitarian crisis.
Some migrants swam several miles through the sea and faced down authorities who tried to turn them back with water cannons, tear gas and warning shots. Those who died included some who drowned or were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier near a border checkpoint.
Spain deployed its armed forces and additional police to restore order in Ceuta, which sits on the Strait of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and has been a Spanish possession since 1580. On the Moroccan side of the border, security forces clashed with migrants.
The death toll in Spain's Ceuta border crisis with Morocco has climbed to 67, the Spanish government said on Saturday.
Spain announced it was installing a containment barrier along the breakwater fence into the sea after tens of thousands of migrants breached the tiny Spanish territory's border this week.
