A Spanish woman delivered a heart-wrenching firsthand account of the crush of thousands of migrants who stormed the beaches of Ceuta this week as she made a desperate plea for help.
Surrounded by a horde of Moroccan migrant men shouting and pushing, Ceuta resident Rocio cried out for help from the Spanish government, which she said has been missing in action amid the influx. Between Thursday and Friday, roughly 60,000 migrants, mainly young men, swam or scaled border fences into Ceuta, which sits on the African continent.
Nearly three dozen people are dead, according to The New York Times.
“We are afraid. We cannot condone this. Where are our rights as Spaniards? Where are our principles as Spaniards? … They need to fortify this city. We need police on the streets, the civil guard on the streets, we need the military on the streets. They’re not there; we’re alone. We cannot call the police or the civil guard because they can’t keep up. We need urgent help,” Rocio said during a televised interview.
She went on to call the situation an “invasion” as she broke down in tears. That was when the migrant men standing behind her began shouting.
“This is really outrageous. I am surrounded, I’m afraid. How can I not be afraid? I even feel like crying. This can’t go on, this can’t go on, really. This can’t go on; we need help. The thing is, I’m shaking. Really, this has to be lived through. You have to live through this as a woman. You have to live through this as a woman,” Rocio said.
“You have to live through this to understand it,” she said. “This is an invasion. They’ve started with Ceuta, but this is the border to Spain, the border to Europe. Today it was Melilla, tomorrow it will be the Canary Islands. The day after, it will be Tarifa.”
At the end of the interview, the reporter remarked that the migrant group closing in behind them couldn’t be kept away or controlled.
“They’ve started approaching us. I am asking them to stay away, but there’s no way,” the reporter said. The men then clapped but didn’t appear to understand what the women had said.
(Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP via Getty Images)
Spain’s far-left Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who is set to give amnesty to one million migrants this year, traveled to Ceuta on Friday after deploying the Spanish military to control the melee.
Sánchez vowed to deport some of the migrants.
Earlier this month, however, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that migrants who enter by sea cannot be immediately expelled.
“The Government will guarantee the safety of the residents of Ceuta, intensifying the presence of the Security Forces and Corps on the city’s streets. Additionally, we will deploy a physical containment barrier in the sea to facilitate repatriation at the border, in compliance with the Supreme Court ruling,” Sánchez said.
After complaining they had not eaten in days and could not find food in Ceuta, thousands of the new arrivals began making the journey back to Morocco on Friday.
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