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Search for further bodies continues off the coast of Ceuta

Search for further bodies continues off the coast of Ceuta

DPASun, August 2, 2026 at 8:18 AM UTC2 min readAdd Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.
Migrants sit on the beach in Ceuta. Migrants who have managed to swim to the Spanish exclave in recent days are returning of their own accord to the Moroccan side, to the town of Castillejos. (is associated with: «Search for further bodies continues off the coast of Ceuta») Jesús Torres/EUROPA PRESS/dpa
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  • Authorities are searching for bodies in the sea off Ceuta after 67 have been recovered from migrants who died while attempting to reach EU territory by swimming from Morocco.
  • Local authorities in Ceuta are preparing a facility to accommodate up to 200 bodies as tens of thousands of migrants entered the Spanish exclave from Morocco, with most voluntarily returning to Morocco.
  • Spain is installing buoys to form a physical barrier at sea to prevent further irregular border crossings following a recent migrant surge, prompted by a ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court allowing individual asylum assessments for those entering Spain via unfortified sections.
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Authorities are continuing to search the sea off Ceuta for the bodies of people who may have drowned during the rush of tens of thousands of migrants into the Spanish exclave in North Africa.

Spanish state broadcaster RTVE reported on Sunday that the Guardia Civil police force was combing the waters off the coast.

So far, 67 bodies have been recovered from the sea. They died while attempting to reach EU territory by swimming from Morocco.

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Spanish newspaper El País quoted an anonymous police officer as saying that "there are more dead in the sea."

Local authorities are preparing a facility capable of accommodating up to 200 bodies, according to the report.

Some 50,000 migrants had entered Ceuta from Morocco by Friday, arriving in the territory of some 85,000 people within only a few days.

Spanish authorities said most of the migrants have since voluntarily returned to Morocco, but several EU leaders have nevertheless sharply criticized the left-wing government in Madrid over its handling of the crisis.

Television footage of the coast off Ceuta showed a calm situation on Sunday, with an RVTE reporter on the ground reporting that no attempts to reach the exclave by sea were currently evident.

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All that could be seen were a few workers who, according to the broadcaster, were busy installing buoys to form a physical barrier.

By creating this physical barrier at sea, Spain also aims to close a loophole created by a ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court, which appears to have played a role in the recent migrant surge.

The court had ruled that people who enter Spain by crossing the border irregularly via an unfortified section, such as the sea, are entitled to an individual asylum assessment.