At least 72,000 people crossed illegally from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in the space of days, overwhelming the city's reception facilities and leaving residents fearful and angry at the government's failure to secure the border. The Interior Ministry said almost all of the migrants had returned to Morocco by Wednesday, but the city remained tense. At least 75 people drowned trying to swim across the border area, and authorities said at least 1,000 minors were among those still in Ceuta.
Julián López Gómez, reporting from the Autonomous City two days after the crossings, found a demonstration already under way. Protesters chanted "Ceuta is not for sale", "Pedro Sánchez, resign!" and "Ceuta, united, will never be defeated!" One woman said, "This cannot be, Spain cannot have such a useless intelligence service that it has no idea what is going on in Ceuta." She added that she hadn't slept for two nights and had shut herself away at home with her granddaughters. Another participant said, "This is a military city. The 3,000 soldiers we have should have been deployed to defend it."
Fear and Anger on the Streets
The reporter said fear was heightened by the fact that the migrants who arrived were overwhelmingly men. One demonstrator criticised the government's crisis management: "No one came out to say absolutely anything. At least to say what we are going to do. A plan. Nothing." The visible deployment of state security forces did little to ease the sense of anguish. López Gómez captured one operation involving a group of migrants by one of the city's most central beaches and later saw other migrants taken off buses at the border and escorted back to the place where they had entered days earlier.
Migrants were roaming beaches, streets, parks and wasteland. One migrant said, "There is no money in Morocco. That is why we came to Spain. But here we have been treated very badly." Another said, "My father, my whole family are poor. Now we are here and we try to get by. We sleep on the street. We are here, life is very hard, but…" Asked whether he would stay or go back, he replied, "For now, here. I don't know how long I can hold out here."
The Human Toll
The crisis was also described as a human tragedy. Spanish authorities said at least 75 people drowned while trying to swim across the border area, now protected by a floating barrier, and there were fears there may have been more victims. The NGO Luna Blanca said it had assisted at least 4,000 people since the start of the crisis. On the afternoon the reporter was filming, 2,000 food portions were handed out in barely two hours.
Its coordinator, Halima Ahmed Iacobi, said, "We are human first and foremost. We cannot allow people to die of hunger. So, where does humanity come in? What do we care about the pull factor?" She also said, "Do you know what the pull factor is? The pull factor is the rumours that spread on social media saying that when a migrant arrives in Spain a red carpet is rolled out, they are given 1,500 or 1,800 euros in benefits, every social benefit imaginable is opened up to them, with soup kitchens for their children. The only thing they still need to tell them is that they are given a car and a holiday flat as well. That is the pull factor."
The Path Forward
López Gómez stayed in Ceuta for less than 30 hours and left four days after the start of the crisis. He wrote that between indignation, fear, anguish, incomprehension, mistrust, bewilderment and compassion, the Autonomous City appeared to face an uncertain struggle to regain normality.
Why This Matters:
The Ceuta crisis exposes the fundamental failure of Spain's border security and intelligence services. A city of 85,000 people cannot absorb 72,000 illegal arrivals in days without collapsing. The Interior Ministry's claim that almost all migrants have returned to Morocco doesn't address the underlying question: how did 72,000 people cross in the first place? The deployment of 3,000 soldiers stationed in Ceuta only after the fact reveals a government that reacts to crises rather than preventing them. The death of at least 75 people is a tragedy — but it's also the predictable consequence of uncontrolled borders that encourage dangerous crossings. Public trust in the state's ability to protect its territory has been shattered, and no amount of after-the-fact policing will restore it without visible, effective border enforcement.