Our Friday piece reported the Ceuta death toll at at least 34, timestamped to Friday afternoon, with a note that it was rising and that we would correct it as the official numbers moved [callback]. They moved.

The toll as of Friday evening, per the Spanish government, is at least 57. [1] The same day it was reported as 18 in the morning and 43 by police sources in the afternoon. [2] Three figures, one day, all official, each accurate to the hour it was given.

What has not resolved is more troubling than a rising toll, because a rising toll at least describes a process that ends. The crossing and return figures do not converge at all.

Al Jazeera, citing Ceuta's regional leadership and the Interior Ministry: about 60,000 people crossed in 24 hours, about 25,000 were returned to Morocco by Friday. [1] Euronews, citing the Interior Ministry: 50,000 crossed, 48,000 returned. [2]

Subtract. The first account leaves 35,000 people inside Ceuta. The second leaves 2,000. Both are attributed to Spanish authorities on the same day, and the difference between them is 33,000 human beings.

Ceuta's population is about 83,000. [2] Whether the city currently holds 2,000 additional people or 35,000 is not a rounding question. It determines whether this is a logistics problem or a humanitarian emergency, and the government that would have to declare the latter has already rejected Ceuta's request for a national emergency declaration. [2]

The deaths themselves have a mechanism, and it is worth stating plainly because the political conversation keeps drifting from it. Regional leader Rachid Sbihi said many drowned, and others died "in a stampede to cross the breakwater fence at Tarajal beach." [1] Not violence. Water and crowd pressure at a fence.

One piece of the record did clarify on Friday, and it cuts against the argument being made loudest elsewhere in Europe. A European Commission official stated that people leaving Ceuta face checks under the Schengen system because the enclave "is treated as the EU's external border," and that "there are no onward movements today towards the European continent." Commissioner Magnus Brunner noted the Schengen Borders Code contains "special provisions that apply to Ceuta and Melilla." [3]

The Commission's position, then, is that the thing several governments are now legislating against is not occurring.

We will keep the figures timestamped and keep printing both accounts until Spain reconciles them. The one number that has stopped being contested is 57.