The Spanish government will deploy the military to guarantee security in Ceuta, Spain‘s enclave on the northern coast of Africa, where more than 1,500 illegal migrants crossed today from Morocco, the Interior Ministry announced. Authorities also confirmed that at least nine of the migrants lost their lives.

According to the ministry’s statement, the armed forces will deploy 60 personnel to reinforce the enclave’s police presence.

“The armed forces will reinforce the Civil Guard in the performance of its duties and in whatever is deemed necessary to safeguard the security of the city of Ceuta,” the ministry said.

Footage filmed by an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist showed thousands of young men, arriving on the shores of the enclave, some of them swimming from neighboring Morocco.

Some of the illegal immigrants entered through a border checkpoint in the southern part of Ceuta, a Spanish territory covering just 18.5 square kilometers. Some shouted, “Goodbye Morocco, good morning Spain,” upon their arrival. Early in the morning, journalists saw piles of flippers, life jackets, and wetsuits on one of the city’s beaches.

The mass arrival of illegal immigrants is the largest since 2021, when more than 10,000 people crossed the border into Ceuta over the course of two days.

On the Moroccan side of the border, an AFP correspondent saw thousands of young men gathered in the afternoon between the Moroccan town of Fnideq and Ceuta. They had assembled after rumors began circulating that the border would open at dawn on Thursday, according to several of those present.

Return to Morocco “as soon as possible”

The president of the city of Ceuta, Juan Vivas, said that more than 1,500 people had arrived in the enclave in recent days, at an average rate of “around 200 a day.” The situation at the already overcrowded and overstretched reception centers was “critical.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a post on X that the government had mobilized “all necessary resources” to deal with the situation in Ceuta as he witnesses this open border policy spectacularly collapse. Sanchez only recently had ordered the regularization of half a million illegal immigrants, in a move seen as an attempt to increase his party’s voters in light of the future elections.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska will travel to the enclave on Friday to meet with local authorities. He also praised Morocco’s “exemplary cooperation.” The two countries will implement “measures to return to Morocco, as soon as possible, all persons who entered Ceuta illegally,” he added.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the opposition People’s Party, described the situation as “desperate,” calling it “a national security crisis.”

Ceuta and Melilla, located about 400 kilometers farther east, are the European Union’s only land territories on the African continent.