Hundreds of migrants rush border at Spain's Ceuta

By AFP

Africa

FEB 20, 2017 LISTEN

Migrants celebrate outside the Center for Temporary Stay of Immigrants (CETI) after forcing their way through fence between Morocco and Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on February 17, 2017. By Antonio Sempere (AFP/File)

Madrid (AFP) - Some 300 migrants stormed the border between Morocco and Spain at Ceuta on Monday, authorities said, days after hundreds more forced their way over the frontier.

The young migrants climbed over the high border fence into the Spanish North African territory, ecstatic to have finally crossed into a European Union state.

Their arrival comes just days after nearly 500 migrants made it over the fence on Friday, one of the biggest entries since the border barrier was reinforced in 2005.

Ceuta and Melilla, also a Spanish territory in North Africa, have the EU's only land borders with Africa, so are entry points for migrants who either climb the border fence, swim along the coast or hide in vehicles.

The enclave has been ringed by a double wire fence eight kilometres (five miles) long. The six-metre high fence also has rolls of barbed wire.