Spain finds migrants in funfair lorries in Ceuta enclave

No fairground fun for these migrants found by police in Ceuta

Spanish police have detained 19 North African migrants hiding in fairground lorries after a funfair in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.

Police with thermal imaging equipment and sniffer dogs found them among bumper cars and a ghost train, waiting to board a ferry to mainland Spain.

Spanish media reports say most of the group were Moroccans, the others Algerian. They included nine children.

Police also clashed with about 1,000 migrants at the Ceuta-Morocco border.

Ceuta and Melilla - both small Spanish territories in North Africa - have become magnets for African migrants hoping to reach Spain.

Most are fleeing poverty and violence in sub-Saharan Africa - but many are not from war zones.

In the latest clash, migrants threw stones and sticks at police who stopped them before they could scale the Ceuta border fence.

It came a day after 187 migrants out of a crowd of about 300 managed to get into Ceuta.

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Fairground paraphernalia could not conceal the migrants from well-equipped police

During the inspection of fairground lorries Spanish police were assisted by Portuguese and Swedish police officers.

The migrants were detained at Ceuta port, before the lorries boarded the ferry for Algeciras.

Ceuta is surrounded by two parallel six-metre (20ft) security fences topped with razor wire.

A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.