00:00A chaotic scene in a Spanish exclave on the border of Morocco.
00:03Past thousands of migrants collapsed border fences and dodged authorities bearing riot
00:08gear after Spain's highest court ruled that migrants attempting to enter the country's
00:12autonomous cities by sea couldn't be given the boot.
00:16Here's what we know about Ceuta, a Spanish autonomous city in North Africa that's now
00:20become a flashpoint for a devastating migrant crisis.
00:24A mass deportation is underway in Ceuta, Spain after an estimated 60,000 migrants
00:29stormed the exclave in a tidal wave of chaos.
00:32Videos captured migrants swimming to the exclave's shore and breaking through fences to get inside
00:37the territory, which has a regular population of around 85,000 residents.
00:42Ceuta, a seven square mile port city that borders Morocco on the African continent's northern
00:47tip, has been in Spanish hands since 1580.
00:51Migrants entering the exclave would still need to cross the Strait of Gibraltar if they wanted
00:55to reach the mainland.
00:56But reaching the Spanish mainland may not be the migrants' end goal.
01:00The shocking migrant surge into Spanish territory followed a ruling by Spain's Supreme Court
01:05earlier this month, which said migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta, or
01:10Maia, another Spanish autonomous city in northern Morocco, cannot be kicked out under the enclave's
01:16special border rejection regime.
01:18But the territory was quickly overwhelmed as the population swelled by nearly 70 percent, leaving
01:23local police, national police, and even an army deployment struggling to keep the peace, as
01:29shops closed down and residents barricaded themselves inside, afraid to walk the streets.
01:34Following a statement by Ceuta's President Juan Jesus Vivas that the number of mostly Moroccan
01:39migrants had risen to 60,000 and that 34 people had died, Spain's Ministry of Interior issued a statement
01:46that the crisis was working toward resolution.
01:49Spanish authorities now claim that about half of the 60,000 migrants who charged into the
01:53diminutive territory have either left or been sent back to Morocco, claiming they're removing
01:59a staggering 150 people per minute.
02:01Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the invasion as, quote, an attack and a, quote,
02:08violation of Spain's territorial integrity.
02:11He said the number of troops deployed to the exclave has increased, and they are now joined
02:14by divers and maritime service vessels.
02:17Sanchez also assured the Spanish government is at work, ensuring nothing like this will happen again,
02:22and said the country's legislature is working on passing a system that would, quote, facilitate the
02:28repatriation of migrants who entered our country irregularly.
02:31He added that the government could even, quote, modify existing laws to, quote,
02:36guarantee those border repatriations as efficiently as possible.
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