Death toll in Spain-Morocco border crisis in Ceuta reaches 67 as tens of thousands cross back

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CEUTA, Spain (AP) — The death toll in Spain’s Ceuta border crisis with Morocco has climbed to 67, the Spanish government said Saturday. They included some who drowned and some who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier.

Spain announced it was installing a 500-meter-long containment barrier along the breakwater fence into the sea after some 60,000 migrants breached the tiny Spanish territory’s frontier between Thursday and Friday.

A handful of exhausted migrants who swam to Ceuta's urban Tarajal beach Saturday morning were met by soldiers who escorted them back across the border. Spain's interior ministry says the majority of those who entered the Spanish territory in North Africa have already returned to Morocco.

After days of chaos and streets packed with people who had hoped for a better life in Spain, residents of Ceuta woke up Saturday to an uneasy calm.

Even so, security for residents of the autonomous city of 84,000 remained bruised.

“Life in this city has been disrupted as a result of the border incident,” said Ceuta’s President Juan Jesus Vivas.

“The return of people has begun satisfactorily but the process must be completed,” he said. “The city has not yet returned to normal.”

Some determined migrants, however, remained in Ceuta. Among them was Mohamed Hatri, a 23-year-old Moroccan.

“They’ve closed everything down so that we can’t buy anything to eat, to force us to return to our country,” he said.

“But even if they close it down … we’re round to stay here, whether we’re hungry or not.”