Ceuta has seen its highest number of migrant arrivals in five years. According to Spain's Interior Ministry, around 60,000 people from Morocco, Algeria and sub-Saharan Africa have entered the Spanish enclave since Thursday, most by swimming around the southern breakwater at Tarajal beach. By Friday afternoon, around 48,000 had already returned to Morocco voluntarily.
Behind the bottleneck are two legal issues that have collided at the worst possible moment. The first stems from a case dating back several years, in which an Algerian migrant challenged his summary return to Morocco, arguing that he had entered Ceuta by swimming rather than by breaching the border fence or climbing over razor wire.
