Hundreds Of Illegal Migrants Demand Asylum After Storming Spanish Beach

Hundreds of illegal migrants who stormed the beaches of the Spanish exclave of Ceuta staged a protest Sunday to demand asylum.

More than 70,000 migrants, mainly from Morocco, swam and scaled border fences to reach Ceuta, which is situated on the African continent, in a matter of days last month. Most of the illegal border crossers have since returned to Africa after complaining about a lack of food and shelter in Ceuta.

Between 5,000 and 8,000 migrants remain in Ceuta, according to Reuters. Most of the migrants said they left Africa to find work, which typically does not qualify as an asylum claim.

The protesting migrants carried signs reading “We don’t want to go back to Morocco” and “We ⁠are also human,” along with Spanish flags, according to Reuters. They also chanted, “We’re tired” and “We need a solution.”

“We’re sleeping next to the sea, with cold and bad ​smells. We’re suffering a lot,” one of the remaining Moroccan migrants, Ayoub Elarroud, told Reuters, adding that police blocked the new arrivals from going to the center of the city.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said the migrants would not be allowed to stay in Ceuta, travel to the mainland to reach Europe, or obtain legal status, according to Reuters.

Following the mass migration event, health officials in Ceuta reported an outbreak of infectious diarrhea and scabies, along with a surge in stab wounds and other violence-related injuries, the outlet reported.

Spanish Health Minister Monica Garcia pushed back on claims that the outbreaks were tied to migrants.

“To associate migration with illness is unjust and xenophobic,” ‌she ⁠said.

Government officials are also scrambling to decide the fate of roughly 1,300 migrant minors who remain in Ceuta without their parents.

While the president of Ceuta argued the children should be returned, Spanish officials say they should find refuge in territories like Ceuta, EuroNews recently reported.

The border crush followed a ruling by Spain’s Supreme Court that said migrants crossing by sea cannot be immediately deported.

It also came months after Spain’s socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, opened the door for more than one million migrants to receive amnesty to counteract the world’s “MAGA-style leaders,” according to The New York Times.

The program received more than double the number of applications the Spanish government had initially expected.

A week before the migrants organized a protest, the residents of Ceuta held a demonstration, with some accusing the Spanish government of “abandonment.”