Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
For many of the 60,000 people who clambered, swam then charged triumphantly into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, the expedition was not spontaneous.
The surge of unauthorised arrivals, which made a mockery of EU border enforcement, came after a week in which some 1,800 people had already swum around a breakwater to enter the tiny Spanish territory in north Africa from neighbouring Morocco.
Long before that, some would-be migrants had taken swimming lessons or taught themselves to swim with their eyes set on Spanish soil, said a Moroccan swimming teacher.
On some Facebook groups, people posted flippers or wetsuits for sale to ease the journey. In others, members writing in Arabic shared information about sea conditions and Google Maps screenshots of the route to Ceuta’s rocky Tarajal beach.
After dawn on Thursday, the moment of truth arrived for the migrants heading to the Morocco-Ceuta frontier.
People arrived on foot, by bike, by car or in larger vehicles that jammed roads on the Moroccan side of the border. Dozens jumped down from the back of one dump truck as two Moroccan gendarmes held up traffic and watched them.
With a Moroccan customs post ahead on the road, migrants instead made their way down steep inclines to a narrow beach, which soon disappeared beneath the crowds.
They trekked slowly north to the points where they would plunge into the sea. Smartphones were slipped into waterproof pouches slung around their necks, the kind Europeans buy on Amazon for their beach holidays.
The shortest direct swimming route to Ceuta was only a few hundred metres, but the crowds and strong currents meant many had to swim further and were in the water for hours.
One man had brought a selfie stick and filmed himself paddling on his back towards Spain. The Spanish police said at least 57 people died in the water, according to local media.
Acknowledging the desperation driving some of the swimmers, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who rushed to the enclave on Friday, said that the income gap between Morocco and Ceuta was “the widest” across any land border in the world.
When the migrants arrived at Tarajal beach, rocks gashed their feet and bruised their legs.
But green-uniformed officers of Spain’s Civil Guard, assigned to border protection, did not stand in their way. Instead, they watched passively as a record number of people flouted EU immigration law in a single day.
One man emerged from the waves with his bicycle.
Then joy began to break out. Young men — shirtless or in dripping wet T-shirts — streamed towards central Ceuta, running in packs and unaware of the traffic they were bringing to a halt.
“Viva España!” shouted one to a television camera. “Morocco, no!” yelled another to a Spanish policeman.
Those who reached a migrant reception centre where they hoped for sustenance and a path to mainland Spain found it closed, already saturated in the previous days.
Some ended up sitting in rows on the ground under the watch of the Spanish police and Red Cross workers.
Ceuta is no open door to the EU: anyone seeking to travel from there to the Spanish mainland must pass through further border checks.
Despite a Spanish Supreme Court ruling this month that made many swimmers think they could not be sent back, Spain said that by 6pm on Friday 48,300 had voluntarily returned to Morocco.
Later in the evening, EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner said “practically all” had gone back.
By the shore, abandoned flip-flops and plastic sandals bobbed on the waves, the detritus of broken hopes — and of a frontier that had dissolved into the sea.
Additional reporting by Alison Killing and Laura Dubois and cartography by Andrew Francisco
