Morocco blocks 300 migrants from entering Spanish port

Moroccan authorities said Thursday they foiled an attempt by a group of 300 migrants to enter Ceuta, a Spanish port on Moroccan territory. Seven members of Moroccan security forces were injured after African migrants threw stones at them, the Moroccan News Agency said quoting a ministry of interior statement. Around 100 people were arrested, the statement added. During the last two days, Moroccan authorities tightened security and surveillance operations along the northern coast. They foiled about twenty migrant attempts to cross the Mediterranean in small boats, which sometimes carry more than 700 people, the statement said. Ceuta is a port in northern Morocco under the sovereignty of Spain and a famous point of transit for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Thousands of migrants fleeing poverty and unrest try to enter Europe each year via Morocco, either by land to Ceuta or Melilla, two Spanish ports in the Moroccan territory, or by sea to Spain or Italy, often in flimsy vessels.