The Spanish government’s representative in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa resigned today, citing personal reasons, after weeks of intense pressure over the handling of the crisis involving the invasion of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from Morocco at the border.

The crisis erupted in late July when more than 72,000 illegal immigrants invaded in Ceuta, overwhelming reception centers and intensifying the debate over migration policy at one of the European Union’s two land borders in Africa.

Few of these illegal immigrants left and tens of thousands more remained in the self-governing enclave, while the minority left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Madrid is struggling to contain the political consequences of its decision to give the Spanish nationality to 500.000 illegal immigrants, thus indirectly inviting more to come to the country.

Government representative Miguel Ángel Triano, who was responsible for coordinating between the Ceuta government and Spanish state services and security forces, defended his handling of the crisis but said that the intense pressure that followed, along with what he described as a “campaign of harassment” against him and his family, had become unbearable.

“My family does not deserve for me to stay any longer,” he said, citing insults, threats and an incident in which someone placed a funeral notice outside his office.

He said the government delegation had no operational control over the border or security forces and that there had been no information available in advance indicating that so many illegal immigrants were about to enter the enclave.

The Madrid government has repeatedly said that although it received warnings about possible border crossings, nothing indicated an influx on the scale that ultimately occurred in Ceuta.

Spain’s Supreme Court is conducting an investigation into the events and is expected to hear the testimony of Triano’s former chief of staff this week.

Speaking to radio station Cope today, Spanish Transport Minister Ángel Víctor Torres estimated that much more than 3,500 migrants remained in Ceuta outside the enclave’s reception facilities.