After 43 days, Zacharias gives up - the group from Morocco stays in Ceuta

After 43 days, Zechariah gives up. He dangles his feet from a wall at Playa Tramaguera in the south of Ceuta; a matted strand of hair sticks out from the back of his head. He looks out to sea towards the headland from which he swam from Morocco to the Spanish exclave at the end of July.

Behind him, Jawad, Taufiq and Hamza fold the blankets on which they sit, eat and wait during the day. “You’re safer in a group,” says Jawad. They are in their mid-20s and spend every day together. One day Jawad, broad shoulders, square jaw, saw a group teasing a deaf boy. Zechariah. Jawad took him in and he became part of the group.