MADRID, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Spanish King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia began a historic visit to Ceuta on Tuesday, the first time in nearly 19 years that a Spanish monarch has visited the North African enclave.
This visit, following the 2007 trip by then-King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia, will also carry the royal couple to Melilla, another Spanish enclave located in North Africa, on Wednesday.
Around Tuesday noon, the royal couple appeared among crowds of residents lining the streets near Africa Plaza. After greeting residents along the way, they talked with Ceuta's President Juan Jesus Vivas and members of local government and the city's assembly at Ceuta's city hall in the plaza.
Their visit came a day after Spain's National Day, amid heightened attention to migration and Spain's border with Morocco.
Ceuta, lying on the Mediterranean coast, borders Morocco near the Strait of Gibraltar. In late July, misinformation about Spain's border policies spread on social media, prompting around 80,000 people to cross from Morocco into the city, including by swimming. It has triggered one of Spain's most serious border migration crises in recent years.
Felipe VI previously described the mass arrival of migrants in Ceuta as an "unacceptable" breach of the Spanish and European border, urging the European Union to address the challenge.
During the Tuesday reception, Vivas said King Felipe VI's visit is important to "sow confidence where confidence is most needed, confidence to persevere and confidence to light the way out of the tunnel."
According to Spanish news agency EFE, the royal couple is scheduled to visit Vicente Aleixandre School before attending a memorial ceremony at the Sidi Embarek Muslim cemetery for more than 80 people who died at sea on July 30 and 31 amid a mass influx of migrants into the city. ■