More than 95 per cent of the migrants have since returned via the land border, following emergency negotiations between the governments of Spain and Morocco. General Francisco Franco launched the Spanish civil war from Spanish Morocco in July 1936, paving the way for 36 years of dictatorship. Morocco does not recognise Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish, and seeks to claim them as Moroccan in diplomatic exchanges with Spain. Ceuta’s local government has blamed the Moroccan government for this latest mass influx, by allegedly loosening border controls. This incident adds yet another layer to Ceuta’s chequered history as a Spanish town on north African soil.