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The massive chaos triggered by nearly 60,000 migrants flooding into a Spanish territory in North Africa all at once has passed its critical point. Nearly 50,000 of them have returned to Morocco. Rumors of retaliation have also emerged, suggesting that Moroccan authorities intentionally encouraged illegal immigration.
Reporting by Kim Minpyo.
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A endless procession of migrants pours across a Moroccan beach.
If you bypass the breakwater with its barbed-wire fence by going around through the sea, you are on Spanish soil.
The crowds crossing the border were even captured on satellite.
About 60,000 people crossed the border via coast and land in an unprecedented crisis.
However, some 48,000 of them returned on their own within a day.
[Spanish military loudspeaker announcement: Please go back. You will face no disadvantages in either Spain or Morocco.]
Hunger and a sense of threat to their personal safety were the main reasons.
[Imad (Returned to Morocco): People in Ceuta wouldn't sell us daily necessities and pointed weapons at us. They threatened to kill us.]
In the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, home to about 84,000 residents, more than 10,000 migrants still remain, and anxiety is spreading as videos of looting by some of them circulate.
[Lydia / Resident of Ceuta, Spain: If migrants have nothing to eat and nowhere to sleep, they will break into our homes. They will drive us out and attack us.]
Protests against the migrants were also held in the capital, Madrid.
[Protest participant: This is an invasion, and Spain is not a commodity to be bought and sold.]
Along with interpretations that a Spanish Supreme Court ruling prohibiting the repatriation of migrants who entered by sea triggered this crisis, rumors of Moroccan retaliation were also raised.
The speculation is that as the Spanish Prime Minister recently visited Algeria and the two countries grew closer, Morocco—which has a bitter rivalry with Algeria—intentionally relaxed border security to encourage illegal immigration.
Morocco retaliated against Spain in this exact manner five years ago.
U.S. President Donald Trump remarked that it looked like hundreds of thousands of people were invading a country, utilizing the situation ahead of the November midterm elections as an opportunity to keep the opposition party in check.
[Donald Trump / U.S. President: If Republicans are not elected, the exact same thing will happen in the United States. Much worse, on a much larger scale, and it will be much easier to enter.]
European countries have begun blocking migrant entries, with Italy announcing the closure of its maritime and air borders with Spain.
(Video Editing: Kim Byung-jik)
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