Spain installs floating barrier in Ceuta following border rush

CEUTA, Aug 1: Spain said migrant crossings into its North African enclave of Ceuta had stopped overnight, as police began installing a 500-metre (1,640-foot) floating barrier on Saturday off its border with Morocco following a mass rush that killed at least 67 people.

According to Spanish authorities, about 50,000 people had crossed into Ceuta by land and sea from Thursday in an unprecedented surge at one of the European Union's only land borders with Africa. More than 48,000 of them returned to Morocco within 48 hours without major incident, Spain said.

Reuters footage on Saturday showed Spanish soldiers and police patrolling a mostly empty Tarajal beach shrouded in fog.
Civil Guard police started laying the new barrier at 7:50 a.m. (0550 GMT) on the Tarajal breakwater, one of the main points used by people trying to enter the tiny Spanish territory, the government said in a statement.

The pneumatic barrier, alongside a line of anchored naval buoys, is designed to stand 30 to 70 centimetres (12 to 28 inches) above water and extend as much as one metre below the surface, it added, while a channel between the barriers will allow Civil Guard vessels to patrol the area.

At least 67 bodies have been recovered on the Spanish side of the frontier, officials said, after some migrants drowned and others were crushed while trying to climb the breakwater and border fence. Many were driven to migrate by economic hardship and encouraged by social media rumours.�" REUTERS