An English teacher living in Ceuta was forced to flee to mainland Spain with her 14-year-old daughter as up to 60,000 migrants started crossing from Morocco by land and sea in a deadly mass border rush.
Julieta Martinelli, 51, originally from Argentina, has lived in the Spanish enclave in north Africa for 17 years, but decided to board a ferry to the port of Algeciras on Thursday night as tens of thousands of migrants poured into the city, dozens of them drowning or dying in stampedes.
She described “horrible” scenes as crowds of mainly young men wandered the city’s streets after arriving en masse in the territory, triggering an unprecedented migrant crisis and a backlash from other EU countries.
Videos seen by The i Paper appear to show local residents, some armed with sticks, chasing and hitting migrants who had entered the city, which has a population of around 83,000.
‘I was afraid’
Ms Martinelli told The i Paper: “On Thursday, when all these people started entering the border, I decided to take the ferry at night because it was something astonishing.
“The number of people was quite overwhelming. At first, I didn’t take it seriously. I started preparing my luggage, and then at five, I went to the port to buy the ferry tickets.
“And then I saw how the streets were packed, and I only saw men. I remember seeing only three women.
“I live alone with my daughter. I live in a house. I don’t live in a building. I do not have neighbors, so I got afraid.”
Up to 60,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta from Morocco (Photo: Hicham Rachidi/Anadolu via Getty Images)Spanish soldiers have been deployed to the territory in a bid to restore order, with Madrid’s interior ministry saying 53,000 of the roughly 60,000 estimated to have entered have already returned to Morocco by Friday.
Many swam around a small barrier in the sea while others appear to have crossed the border on foot, with 67 confirmed to have died while trying to cross, Spanish authoritie said.
Some drowned and others were killed in a stampede to cross the breakwater barrier.
On Saturday morning, police from Spain’s Guardia Civil Civil laid a new 500-metre-long floating barrier on the Tarajal breakwater, one of the main points used by people trying to enter Ceuta, in an attempt to stop more crossings.
‘It wasn’t safe’
Ms Martinelli said: “I picked up my daughter. And I told her, ‘Okay, we are going to leave Ceuta at 9pm. This is nothing to worry about. We’ll be back in a few days when things settle down’.
“I saw people opposite my house. There is a small river which is dry. So it’s like a ditch. And I guess they were looking somewhere to hide, so it was not a safe place for me.
Video showed some local residents, some armed with makeshift weapons, chasing after migrants who had come into their areas“A close friend of mine told me that the neighbours in some of the neighborhoods started driving the migrants away with their own hands.”
She added: “Migrants were trying to break into homes. We were all afraid.”
Meanwhile, Núcleo Nacional, a Spanish far-right organisation, has urged its members and supporters to “mobilise towards Ceuta”, with a rally planned for Saturday evening.
On Friday, one of the leaders of the party announced he would travel to Ceuta with the aim of “expelling” migrants who arrived during the mass influx.
Ms Martinelli, who is currently staying at her flat in mainland Spain, said: “These far right extramists, who intend to target migrants are also spreading messages telling that even Muslim residents of Ceuta are not really Spanish.”
‘Nothing left in the markets’
Due to concerns over the current situation, she is not planning to come back to Ceuta in the immediate future.
She described how she had previously helped one Moroccan woman she knows in Ceuta obtain her Spanish residency paper.
People gather next to an overturned and burnt vehicles at the site of clashes near Fnideq, on the Morocco-Spain border. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP via Getty Images)“But in a legal way. These people see this as an opportunity. They just want to leave their country and the problem is that many of them we don’t know which intentions they have,” she added.
Spain has condemned “selfish, polarising and unlawful” reactions of some EU countries over the Ceuta influx of migrants.
Italy temporarily suspended the EU’s border-free Schengen arrangement with Spain, a decision backed by Finland and Denmark, after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni branded the scenes “shocking”.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the government had secured the border and prevented any “unauthorised onward movement towards continental Europe”.
But Manuel Jurado, 31, a lawyer based in Ceuta, said there was still a “huge” number of migrants in the territory on Saturday.
“These people are sleeping out there in the streets, in the parks. They get into houses, which they think might be empty,” he said.
“Nobody can buy stuff in the supermarkets because everything’s closed because of the danger and people are scared of what can happen.
“People have been really scared about it.”
Ceuta’s annual feria – fair – has been cancelled as a result of the crisis, with local residents.
Hence then, the article about i fled my home after thousands descended on ceuta we were all afraid was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( I fled my home after thousands descended on Ceuta – we were all afraid )
Also on site :
- Tiger Shroff to Star in Viccky Jain’s VJ Frames Launch Title, Directed by Remo D’Souza, With Abhishek Banerjee, Elvish Yadav Also Set (EXCLUSIVE)
- Wall Street’s hidden recruiting pipeline isn’t an Ivy League diploma—it’s the teammate who triples your odds of getting hired
- CNN verifica: Trump afirma sin fundamento que Walz está “detrás” de ciberataque y repite falsedades en la reunión de gabinete