CEUTA, Spain: Thousands of migrants crossed overnight from Morocco into Spain's north Africa's Ceuta enclave as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday arrived to manage one the largest migrant crisis on the country's border.
In recent days, a total of around 40,000 migrants have crossed into the territory, a police source said, many swimming around the small border barrier that meets with the Mediterranean sea.
The sudden massive influx has sparked an international crisis for Spain's government, drawing criticism from Italy and Finland and prompting France to tighten checks on its border with Spain.
Madrid has sent troops and more police, including divers, drones and boats, to boost security in Ceuta. Sanchez and his interior minister arrived on Friday to visit the enclave's Tarajal border.
AFP reporters have seen hundreds of people -- men, women and children -- entering Ceuta by swimming around a border barrier with Morocco to enter the Spanish exclave, discarding flotation rings and clothes used in the risky passage.
On Friday, hundreds of migrants mostly young men were hanging around near the border and in the town while others were turning back to Morocco, saying "there are too many people here".
So far, 18 people have died attempting to reach the Spanish enclave, the police source said.
"There was a steady stream of people all night long," the source said, adding that migrants "continued to arrive overnight and are still arriving" early Friday.
It was not immediately clear what has prompted the recent surge of migrants from Morocco.
In 2021, thousands crossed to take advantage of Rabat loosening border controls during a diplomatic dispute with Spain.
Already the Ceuta scenes of the surge in migrants were causing diplomatic fallout.
Italy on Thursday called for Spain to be suspended from Europe's open-borders Schengen zone, prompting Spain to summon Italy's ambassador and accuse Rome of using the crisis for political gain.
Finland on Friday also backed Italy's call to shut Spain out of the zone over the crisis.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on X that he had "given instructions to immediately step up controls at the Spanish border" on Thursday night.
Two top officials within US President Donald Trump's White House on Thursday also reiterated their anti-immigration politics using video of Ceuta.
'Bye Morocco'
Ceuta, a territory of 18.5 square kilometers (seven square miles), and similar enclave Melilla have Europe's only two land borders with Africa.
Ebullient migrants on Thursday were walking through the streets of Ceuta, thanking the Spanish police and calling out: "Bye bye Morocco, hello Spain."
Police and Civil Guards in Ceuta appeared to do little to intervene, although some officers attempted to direct the arrivals to the local migrant reception center.
Morocco's authorities had not yet issued an official statement on the flow of migrants, but a Moroccan official source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the two countries had spoken about the matter.
