The Government has calculated the number of immigrants who have returned to Morocco from Ceuta at 37,500 as of 3:30 PM on Friday, July 31, after the serious migration crisis in which more than 50,000 people entered the autonomous city irregularly, according to the official data released.
During almost the entire day on Thursday, the flow of arrivals to Ceuta was constant, but this Friday a significant portion of the migrants who accessed by swimming or skirting the El Tarajal breakwater opted to turn back.
At noon, Pedro Sánchez's Executive placed the number of returnees at 25,000, with an exit rate of about 150 people per minute, and just a few hours later updated the figure to 37,500.
Government sources indicated that around 50,000 people managed to access Ceuta, while the president of the city, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), raised that estimate to 60,000, mostly of Moroccan nationality, of which 7,000 would be minors.
On the same Friday, Sánchez traveled to the autonomous city, where he defined what happened as an attack and a violation of Spain's territorial integrity and announced the placement of buoys in the sea as a measure to curb mass entries.
The head of the Executive held the mafias dedicated to human trafficking and the call spread on social networks to cross into Ceuta responsible after a recent ruling by the Supreme Court prohibited "hot returns."
Likewise, he defended cooperation with Morocco, although he demanded from Rabat greater firmness so that "as soon as possible" all migrants who entered irregularly can return to their countries of origin.