Spain's new Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said last month he would "do everything possible" to remove barbed wire from border fences that surround Ceuta and Melilla, another Spanish territory on Morocco's northern border. The force said 602 people had succeeded in reaching Ceuta, of whom 586 had been taken to a temporary reception centre, while 16 were being treated in hospital. The Civil Guard branch of the police said the mass border breach took place at around 7am at an area of the fence considered a blind spot due to its lack of cameras, while the city's Red Cross said it had scrambled many emergency rapid response units. It comes after former Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido last year told Spanish parliament that nine similar swoops on frontiers in Ceuta and Melilla - Spain’s other African enclave – in 2017 had seen 8,956 people enter Spain illegally, compared to just 613 in 2016. Responding to the Thursday incident in Ceuta, the Guardia Civil’s AEGC union called upon the Spanish authorities to clarify its “plan B” to maintain security if the wire was removed. The city is a hub for African migrants trying to reach Europe.Over 19,000 people have landed on in Spain in 2018 so far, according to the data from the International Organization for Migration.
Hundreds of Sub-Saharan African migrants storm a border fence in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, using home-made flamethrowers and other improvised weapons. The Spanish Civil Guard reports that 602 people succeeded in reaching Ceuta, of whom 586 were taken to a temporary reception centre, while 16 others are being treated in a hospital. Fifteen border guards were also hurt.