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Spain and Morocco have beefed up security on both sides of the border in Spain’s African enclave Ceuta as renewed calls circulate social media for Moroccan migrants to rush the border a second time after an initial mass migration event in July overwhelmed the city.
Soldiers patrolled the city’s commercial and government buildings Friday while an enhanced police presence could be seen on Ceuta’s main avenues, Reuters reported.
On the Moroccan side, security personnel dressed in all-black patrolled the beaches of Fnideq, one of the most prominent launching points from which migrants illegally entered Ceuta on July 30 as part of a mass migration event that saw over 70,000 people rush into Ceuta from Morocco.
The strengthened security followed calls on social media for Moroccans to again rush into Ceuta, and into Spain’s other African enclave, Melilia, on Saturday.
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“The Ministry of the Interior has detected, during the last few days, the circulation of anonymous publications and messages on certain social networks inciting the organization of attempts at collective and illegal crossing to the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, practices which carry serious risks to the safety of people and aim to instrumentalize migration issues in acts of incitement, which are criminalized by law,” Morocco’s Ministry of the Interior said in a statement posted to the country’s state-affiliated news website MAP.
Morocco arrested multiple people who circulated the inciting statements, Interior Ministry spokesperson Rachid El Khalfi said.
The Interior Ministry also called on Spain to continue working to return the remaining Moroccan migrants in Ceuta back to the North African country.
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Of the more than 72,000 migrants who rushed the border, the vast majority have returned to Morocco, according to statements from Spain and Ceuta’s government. About 5,000 remain, Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters Friday.
Spanish officials have been screening the remaining migrants and have processed roughly 500 asylum seekers’ cases, rejecting the vast majority of them, Reuters reported.
Spain has also installed floating barriers in the waters where migrants had previously swam across.
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At least 96 people died during the mass migration event.
Fox News Digital contacted the governments of Spain, Morocco and Ceuta for further comment.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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