First came a campaign of online calls to breach the border en masse. Then, days later, hundreds of young men swept towards the razor-wire fences that separate a Spanish territory from Morocco.
The security forces were waiting. Fnideq, the Moroccan town that abuts Spain’s tiny north African city of Ceuta, became the scene of beatings, clashes with police and mass arrests as the authorities drove them back.
“It was like a battle,” said Ibrahim, 18, who was among those trying to smash through the border on Sunday. “Some people behind us on a hill were throwing stones at the police at the crossing. When we moved and tried to break through at a different point, [the police] charged at us and chased us away.”
