Castillejos, Morocco, Jul 30 (EFE).– Moroccan authorities increased police presence and began using riot control equipment, including water cannons, to disperse the crowd gathered near the border with Ceuta on Thursday, as EFE was able to verify on the ground.
Thousands of people have continued to arrive in Castillejos throughout the day, aiming to cross into Spain, a human tide stretching more than five kilometers that ultimately overwhelmed the Moroccan police.
After a day in which the steady stream of migrants, mostly young people from various parts of the country, did not cease, security forces activated this operation to halt attempts to approach the border perimeter.
As a result of the police intervention, hundreds of people have begun retreating toward the town center, where most plan to spend the night before trying to cross again in the coming hours.
“They’ve dispersed us, but we’re not going to stop trying,” a young Moroccan man told EFE as he walked away from the area adjacent to the border crossing.
The riot police’s actions have not prevented hundreds of people from continuing to try to swim across and circumvent the border breakwater, one of the barriers reinforced with barbed wire that separates the Castillejos coastline from Spanish territory.
Several vessels from the Royal Moroccan Navy are patrolling the area in an attempt to contain thousands of young people, women, and children who refuse to give up and continue to throw themselves into the sea to cross into Ceuta.
Hundreds of people have set up camp on the hills near the border perimeter and, for the time being, have not yet been evicted by security forces.
However, migratory pressure by land has decreased near the border.
Meanwhile, in Ceuta, the Spanish National Police and the Local Police have been deployed at various locations downtown. EFE
mar/mcd
