MADRID: Spain has returned to Morocco more than a dozen sub-Saharan African and Asian migrants who reached the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and were turned down for asylum, the first deportation of its kind from the enclave since a mass border crossing in July. The Interior Ministry said the group had been sent back to Morocco after it agreed to receive them and they remained on Moroccan territory at present.
A spokesperson for Spain's Interior Ministry said that Morocco is considered by the EU to be a safe country, and deportations are carried out "with all the necessary safeguards", without providing further details. Over 48 hours in July, some 80,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, a tiny enclave that along with Melilla represents Europe's only land borders with Africa.
While most returned within days, thousands remain and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government is under pressure from the EU and a frustrated populace to fix the Ceuta crisis before elections on November 29. Spanish authorities are housing 8,000 migrants in reception centres and processing asylum applications lodged by the majority of people remaining in Ceuta. — Reuters
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