The young man wore red-and-white-soled sneakers for what proved to be his fatal final journey. The shoes were still on his feet when Spanish rescue workers fished his inert body from the waves of the Mediterranean and wrapped it in foil, like a macabre gift.

They piled pebbles on the fringes to stop the shiny golden covering from blowing away. Two burly men in white coveralls then arrived with a plastic coffin. Their boots scrunched on the shingle as they carried the corpse away: yet another body, picked up off yet another European shore.

After beaches in Greece, Italy and elsewhere, a fleck of Spanish territory on the northern coast of Africa this week became the latest deadly flashpoint in Europe’s battle to stem migration flows from less fortunate regions of the world wracked by conflict, poverty and other miseries.

Spanish Army and Guardia Civil officers take positions next to the border of Morocco and Spain, at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Javier Fergo)

Spanish Army soldiers expel a migrant from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A migrant is assisted by soldiers of the Spanish Army near the border of Morocco and Spain, at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

In an unprecedented 48-hour siege that quickly overwhelmed Spanish authorities, more than 8,000 people clambered around border fences and swam from Morocco to the Spanish-governed enclave of Ceuta.

Spanish authorities recovered two bodies from the waves, both young men from Morocco.

Some swimmers knelt down in prayer before wading from Moroccan beaches into the Mediterranean, hoping to make land in Ceuta and, from there, make new lives in mainland Europe.

Some swam with packages of belongings. Weaker swimmers struggled in the waves and marine currents. A rictus of pain contorted the face of a young migrant as he flailed through the final meters (yards) to shore.

People cross a forest in the Moroccan northern town of Fnideq on their way to the area at the border of Morocco and Spain, at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

Migrants arrive at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, near the border of Morocco and Spain, Wednesday, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A barefoot swimmer reached Ceuta seemingly so exhausted that he couldn’t immediately drag himself from the surf. He lay face down, grimacing, his right hand clutching the wet sand. The man later bear-hugged a Spanish Red Cross worker who comforted him. With a tender hand on the back of his head, she held him to her shoulder.

Other migrants piled aboard flimsy boats. One small craft with 14 tightly packed young men aboard floated dangerously low in the water. They used empty bottles to bail it out. Another man swam along behind, clutching the stern.

Rushed in to plug the holes in the porous border through which people streamed, Spanish troops in flak jackets and with long truncheons rounded up young men in Bermuda shorts, tracksuits and soccer jerseys bearing the names of the sport’s biggest stars.

A migrant runs after crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, near the border of Morocco and Spain, early Wednesday, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Migrants who recently crossed the Spain Morocco border, cross into the Ceuta commercial port, Spain, Wednesday, May 19, 2021. The group explained to The Associated Press their goal to reach the European ports of Malaga or Algeciras after hiding inside a commercial boat. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Two minors sleep inside a warehouse turned into a makeshift center for migrant minors at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, at the border of Morocco and Spain, early Wednesday, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Soldiers chased across the pebbles after migrants in sandals and flimsy shoes. At night, alleyways in Ceuta echoed with the patter of migrants running and hiding.

On the Moroccan side, more young men streamed toward the enclave, on well-trodden paths through tall, flowering shrubs.

Posted along a towering border fence, Spanish soldiers watched through the mesh as migrants gathered on the other side, on a boulder-strewn seafront and on arid hills overlooking Ceuta.

Spanish forces rained down tear gas canisters onto the swelling crowds, the acrid smoke trailing curly white plumes.

A migrant is comforted by a member of the Spanish Red Cross near the border of Morocco and Spain, at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, May 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Spanish armored vehicles parked along the beach, their wheels digging into the shingle that was strewn with discarded clothes and other debris left by migrants who swam around the fence to Ceuta.

For the vast majority, its shores were as close as they came to the possibility of a new start in Europe.

The bulk — more than 7,000 — were quickly sent back. Soldiers escorted them to a gate in the border fence, expelling them into Morocco.

But how long before the waters beckon them back?