Moroccan security forces on Sunday pushed back hundreds of migrants, Moroccans and foreigners, who were trying to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta illegally, following calls on social networking sites, an AFP photojournalist found.

The migrants, among them many minors, mostly Moroccans, were heading towards the border crossing in the Moroccan community of Funaidak, which neighbors Teuta, early yesterday afternoon when they were pushed back by the police.

The migrants, among them many nationals of sub-Saharan African countries, took refuge in hills near the border zone.

Earlier, another group of hundreds of migrants tried to reach Ceuta but was also blocked by security forces, according to Moroccan media.

At the same time, the body of a migrant – his nationality was not announced – was retrieved yesterday from a beach in Funaidak by the Moroccan civil protection, according to reports. The information was not immediately confirmed by the authorities.

A strong force was built over the weekend in Funaidak by calls on social media sites for migrants to go to Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the northern Moroccan coast, some 300km from the capital Rabat, yesterday.

Despite its growth, hundreds of young people, mostly Moroccans, flocked to the community and police spent the night trying to bus them back to their towns, according to the press.

Some sixty people, including minors, were arrested between September 9 and 11 in various Moroccan cities for “spreading false information through social networking sites” and inciting “collective attempts at illegal immigration,” an AFP police source said.

Ceuta, like Melilla, another Spanish enclave 400 kilometers to the east, are the only land gateways to the European Union on the African continent.

The flow of migrants to the border with Ceuta has intensified in recent weeks. Moroccan authorities prevented more than 11,300 illegal immigration attempts, according to the interior ministry.

In Melilla, over 3,300 attempts were prevented in the same period.

Since the beginning of the year, 45,015 such attempts have been prevented by law enforcement forces in Morocco, while 177 trafficking rings have been dismantled, according to the same source.

The main route for migrants who want to reach Spain, however, remains the extremely dangerous sea route to the Canaries from the north-west coast of Africa. More than 22,300 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands between January 1 and August 15, a 126% year-on-year increase, according to Madrid.