Spain installs floating barrier after deadly migrant border rush

At least 67 people died while trying to climb the breakwater and border fence, officials say.

Some of the migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, while others were killed in a deadly crush at a border checkpoint -- prompting Spain to declare a national emergency and mobilize law enforcement authorities to send thousands back across the border.

Spain on Saturday installed a 500-metre-long (1,600-foot) barrier on the sea border between its North African territory of Ceuta and neighboring Morocco after tens of thousands of migrants breached the frontier earlier in the week.

Spain has installed a 500-meter containment barrier on the sea border between its North African territory of Ceuta and Morocco

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez criticised the reaction of some other European Union leaders to the events in Ceuta.

At least 67 migrants died, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, the Spanish government said Saturday.

According to Spanish authorities, about 50,000 people had crossed into Ceuta by land and sea from Morocco in an unprecedented surge at one of the European Union's only land borders with Africa.

Most migrants who entered the Spanish territory in North Africa have already returned to Morocco, Spain’s interior ministry says

Spain installs floating barrier in Ceuta after calm night following border rush  Reuters

CEUTA, Spain, Aug 1 - Spain said migrant crossings into its North African enclave of Ceuta had stopped overnight, as police began installing a 500-metre (1,640-foot) floating barrier on Saturday off its border with Morocco following a mass rush that killed at least 67 people.

Most of those who surged into the territory, a Spanish exclave in Africa, have returned across the border to Morocco. At least 67 people died trying to enter, the authorities said.