Sawt Falasteen - Migrants depart Spain's N. Africa enclave as EU tightens borders

Some 60,000 migrants entered Ceuta over just a few days from neighbouring Morocco, the enclave's regional president Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters, but by Friday evening Spain's interior ministry said more than 48,000 had already returned.

Under the watch of Spanish soldiers and police on Saturday morning, the remaining young migrants continued crossing back over the border to Morocco, AFP journalists saw.

Any who lingered too long on the coastal path were immediately ushered back out by the soldiers.

To cross into Ceuta, many swam around a small border barrier that juts out into the Mediterranean. At least 34 people died in the attempt.

"We hope to go to Europe to work and earn a living. That's it," Souleil Boyan, 19, a Senegalese migrant told AFP outside a migrant centre in Ceuta where dozens of other sub-Saharan African migrants waited for officials.

"We all know that in Africa there isn't much opportunity," he said.

The sudden influx of migrants had sparked political panic in Europe.

- 'Adios' -

France tightened checks on its border with Spain and said it would increase its police presence there fivefold to 334 officers and gendarmes by Saturday.

Italy suspended its Schengen agreement with Spain allowing for visa-free movement between borders as of Saturday for one month.

Several European countries had suggested Spain's membership in the Schengen free movement zone should be suspended, though Spain's foreign minister said integrity of the zone was "guaranteed".

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in a letter to the heads of the European Commission and European Council, blasted the "selfish" reaction by some EU countries and called for a video meeting of the bloc's interior ministers.

Madrid has already rushed troops, police, drones, divers and boats to the North African outpost that it has run for centuries.

Overnight into Saturday, AFP journalists observed groups of young people wandering the beaches and streets of Ceuta. Dozens of men slept on the sand.

At the border, some young people were seen turning back, saying "adios" or "goodbye" to officers before crossing back to Morocco.

More soldiers stood guard on the small beach next to the border fence, positioned under parasols in the morning.

Buoys and flippers still littered the ground along the fence, while others floated in the water, remnants from the surge of people who had initially swum past the border post.

Nearby an inflatable boat with security personnel patrolled in the thick fog.

Spain's interior ministry said a new pneumatic barrier 500 meters (1,640 feet) in length was installed near the border post to reinforce security.

- 'A better future' -

In Morocco, Soufian, 42, told AFP that he had been planning to make a swim from his coastal town of Martil, located less than 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Ceuta, when a friend told him that the border was open.

"It didn't take long -- just five minutes or less, maybe three -- since it was right at the border."

He explained he was motivated by the potential to visit his mother, who is ill and lives in Madrid.

"Even though there's no food, nothing at all, I'll endure anything to see my mother," Soufian said, adding he makes just 10 euros ($12) a day working 12-hour shifts as a security guard.

As for the others who crossed, he said, "everyone wants to move up, wants a good future -- something that doesn't exist in Morocco".

What sparked the flow of migrants remains unclear.

Morocco's authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the flow of migrants.

Ceuta, a territory of 18.5 square kilometres (seven square miles), and the nearby enclave of Melilla are Europe's only two land borders with Africa.

Previous migrant surges have occurred during tensions between Spain and Morocco, including in 2021 which led more than 10,000 migrants to enter Ceuta in just two days.

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I.Yassin--SF-PST