The death toll from the border crisis in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta rose to 67 on Saturday, Spanish authorities said. The victims included migrants who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede while trying to cross a breakwater barrier.
The Spanish government also announced plans to install a 500-meter (1,640-foot) floating containment barrier along the breakwater after about 60,000 migrants breached the tiny enclave's border with Morocco between Thursday and Friday.
A handful of exhausted migrants who swam to Ceuta's urban Tarajal Beach on Saturday morning were met by soldiers who escorted them back across the border. Spain's Interior Ministry said 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 hoping for a better life in Spain, residents of Ceuta woke up Saturday to an uneasy calm.
Even so, the sense of security among residents of the autonomous city of 84,000 remained shaken.
"Life in this city has been disrupted as a result of the border incident," said Ceuta President Juan Jesus Vivas.
"The return of people has begun satisfactorily, but the process must be 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 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 going to stay here, whether we're hungry or not."
