Migrants storm EU border: Thousands charge up beaches and climb over fences to force their way into Spanish enclave as it declares 'total emergency'

Thousands of migrants have stormed Spanish territory with dramatic videos showing large crowds overwhelming border guards in the enclave of Ceuta in northern Africa.Extraordinary footage shows huge numbers of migrants sprinting up beaches, swimming ashore and dispersing into the streets of the tiny Spanish territory which borders Morocco, with some shouting 'Long live Spain'. The president of the territory, Juan Jesus Vivas, has declared a 'total humanitarian and social emergency', with at least 60 migrants washing up dead and camps completely overwhelmed.It comes after Spain's socialist government approved plans to give around 500,000 undocumented migrants legal status earlier this year. 'In the past few days more than 1,500 migrants, both adults and minors, have come to Ceuta by sea,' said Vivas in televised comments on Wednesday.'The reception centres are saturated - there is no more room for anyone in them and according to yesterday's figures the number of people entering is more than 200 a day.'According to EFE, hundreds of youths ​could be seen scaling the security fencing – ⁠which was not being guarded by police ​at the time – and entered Ceuta, while members ​of the Moroccan auxiliary force responsible for security on the ground withdrew as the young people passed. Spain's interior ministry said in a statement that several ministries were 'acting in coordination to respond with the utmost speed and efficiency to the situation in Ceuta'. Hundreds of migrants have entered the Spanish north African exclave of Ceuta by sea in recent days, officials said Thursday, with local television images showing them swimming around the frontier and running into the town Migration from Morocco into Spain's two north African territories, Ceuta and Melilla, has long been a politically sensitive issue between the two countriesInterior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska would travel to Ceuta on Friday 'to monitor the situation' and meet officials, it said. The ministry said the government had increased its resources 'to guarantee security and control of migration as well as the necessary humanitarian aid, so that no lives are put in danger at sea'.It said the Moroccan government was working 'faithfully and permanently with Spain and collaborating closely to deal with the situation'.'Moroccan security forces are preventing the arrival of numerous people who are trying to reach Ceuta from Morocco.'Vivas said facilities for unaccompanied minors were operating at 2,400 per cent of capacity.In comments to Onda Cero, he described the situation as a national emergency and called for a 'decisive, forceful, immediate and coordinated' response under a single command structure.Ceuta, together with Melilla - another Spanish autonomous city located in North Africa - represents the European Union's only land border with Africa. Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe. Spain's Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska will travel to Ceuta on Friday to meet local authorities and security chiefs, as the Spanish government said it was coordinating across multiple ministries to strengthen border control and provide humanitarian assistance. Migrants try to cross into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, Thursday, July 30 Vivas called for changes to Spain's immigration framework, saying legal shortcomings exposed by a recent Supreme Court ruling needed to be addressedArrivals were currently averaging about 300 people a day, according to Vivas. At that pace, he warned, Ceuta could face a situation comparable to the May 2021 migration crisis, when 10,000 people entered the enclave in mere days.Vivas also pointed to the human cost of the crossings, saying 60 bodies had been recovered at sea in recent months, and argued that stronger migration controls would help prevent further deaths.The interior ministry said Moroccan security forces were helping to curb arrivals from its territory.Vivas called for changes to Spain's immigration framework, saying legal shortcomings exposed by a recent Supreme Court ruling needed to be addressed.Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot be summarily returned under the enclaves' special border-rejection regime.The ruling established that migrants who arrive by sea cannot be immediately pushed back across the border without due process, unlike those who cross into Spain by land - by climbing over the border fence, for example. Grande-Marlaska, in an interview with Spanish television channel laSexta, acknowledged authorities were facing 'an extraordinary, exceptional situation'.He asserted that 'we are dealing with it with the means that we already have deployed there permanently'.Spain's Civil Guard, maritime Rescue Services and even the Red Cross have been using boats to pick up swimmers before taking them to Ceuta. Hundreds of migrants are now sleeping outside a migrant reception center that is over capacity.Those attempting the crossing are mainly Moroccans, along with a small number of Algerians who had been living in Morocco while trying to migrate to Europe, according to activists in Morocco and Ceuta.It was not clear what prompted so many migrants to swim to Ceuta.Some activists, including Omar Naji, president of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights in Eastern Morocco, expressed doubt that the Supreme Court ruling was behind the surge. Most Moroccans would have been unaware of such legal decisions, he said.The timing of the crossing, occurring after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune last week, reminded Naji of the border crisis of May 2021 when more than 8,000 migrants poured into Ceuta in just two days.At the time, Morocco was accused of easing border controls and allowing migrants to cross into the enclave after Spain allowed Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali to receive medical treatment at a Spanish hospital, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Rabat and Madrid. The pro-independence Polisario Front for decades has claimed to be the legitimate representative of the indigenous Sahrawi people of disputed Western Sahara.On Wednesday, Spain's interior minister praised Moroccan authorities, saying they were cooperating and that the relationship with the kingdom was 'close and based on loyalty'.'They are also limiting irregular departures,' he told laSexta.