00:04What you're seeing is thousands of people crossing from Morocco into Spanish Territory.
00:08Some swam using makeshift dinghies, others port through a gate in the border fence.
00:13But this isn't mainline Spain. This is Sueta, a small Spanish Territory on the northern coast of Africa
00:19and one of the European Union's only land borders with Africa.
00:22So why do so many people cross at once? There's no single confirmed trigger.
00:27But earlier in July, Spain's Supreme Court ruled that migrants arriving by sea cannot be immediately pushed back without following
00:34due process.
00:35The ruling did not give them a right to stay.
00:38But Spain's Interior Ministry claims people smuggling networks used it to encourage more migrants to attempt the crossing.
00:45Some migrant right activists dispute this, arguing that many of those crossing may not have even known about the ruling.
00:52The scenes also echo May 2021 when around 8,000 migrants, including 1,500 miners, entered Sueta in just two
01:01days.
01:01That crisis came during a diplomatic dispute after Spain allowed Western Sahara independence leader Brahim Ghali to receive medical treatment.
01:10Morocco was accused at the time of relaxing its border controls.
01:14This time, Sueta's government asked Madrid to declare a national emergency, deploy the army and temporarily close the Moroccan border.
01:22Madrid said migration alone does not legally qualify for such emergency.
01:26But it sent additional police officers and troops and said it would work with Morocco to return those who entered
01:32illegally as quickly as possible.
01:34Don't.ãƒ
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