Multiple thousands of migrants have streamed onto Spanish territory from Morocco in a matter of days, taking advantage of a new loophole after a Supreme Court ruling that ordered police to stop resisting migrants who came by sea.
The local government of Ceuta — a tiny slice of North Africa that is an exclave of Spanish territory otherwise surrounded by Morocco and the Mediterranean — has called on the national government in Madrid to declare a national emergency, deploy the army, and close the border as the city is overwhelmed by an enormous migrant wave. Certainly more than two thousand, with the full number unclear as the surge continues and local law enforcement finds itself unable to cope nor count, are reported to have swum around the small fenced breakwater that demarks the Moroccan and Spanish territorial line.
UPDATE 1930 BST — Army Deploys
Spanish newspaper El Mundo now states that after days of the border crisis and the Ceuta local authorities begging Madrid for help, the army has now finally deployed. Remarkably, the paper further states that previous estimates of arrivals being in the low thousands may be radically wrong and police sources tell them “some 20,000 people have crossed the Ceuta border”. This extraordinary figure is not yet confirmed by official sources.
A column of armoured vehicles has been deployed and there are said to be some 3,000 Spanish troops in the city. Yet given the move by Spain’s Supreme Court to ban migrant pushbacks at the border, and the Spanish socialist government’s openly pro-migrant policies, it is not clear whether the troops will be ordered to actually prevent the situation from continuing to snowball. Just as likely, they will be deployed to assist migrant arrivals and re-establish social services in the city, which have been overwhelmed for days.
The government said in a statement: “The Armed Forces will reinforce the Civil Guard in the exercise of its powers and any other duties that may be necessary to maintain security in the city of Ceuta. The mobilized personnel will be coordinated by the operations command and will provide support to the Civil Guard”.
Spain’s left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will fly to Ceuta on Friday, so no doubt there is a certain amount of cleaning up to do to make the place ready for the arrival of the head of government in safety, among an ongoing migrant crisis.
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Spanish police officers respond as migrants cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)
CEUTA, SPAIN – JULY 30: Dozens of people are swimming across the border on 30 July 2026 in Ceuta, Spain. (Photo By Europa Press via Getty Images)
CEUTA, SPAIN – JULY 30: Several migrants are attempting to swim across the border on 30 July 2026 in Ceuta, Spain. (Photo By Europa Press via Getty Images)
Until recently migrants who have travelled through Africa to reach Europe have been repulsed by police and border guards at the enormous walls and fences that protect European territory Ceuta. Yet as previously reported, earlier this month the Spanish Supreme Court ruled that it was not lawful for migrants arriving by sea to be turned around and sent away, meaning that even if arrivals had only swam a few yards from neighbouring Morocco, police are legally powerless to stop them.
Remarkable footage of the surge of migrants taking advantage of this ruling has spiked interest in the Ceuta migrant crisis, which has been going on for years. Indeed, while the video and images of this week’s border crossings appear huge, the scale of arrivals is nothing compared to the 14,000 who crossed into Ceuta from Morocco in just two days in 2021, when the Moroccan government enabled migrant crossings as a political protest.
Since then, Morocco has periodically been more cooperative and sometimes enforces border security, keeping migrants away from the Spanish line. Yet as Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports today, Moroccan border officers were witnessed making no effort to prevent the flow, and Spanish police were left powerless to resist.
Migrants cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)
Migrants cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)
CEUTA, SPAIN – JULY 30: Dozens of people are waiting at the Temporary Immigrant Reception Centre (CETI) in Ceuta (Spain) on 30 July 2026. (Photo By Europa Press via Getty Images)
While most arrivals have not been registered or in any way controlled by police and Ceuta’s migrant arrival reception centre is already full well beyond its official 500 capacity, it is understood the vast majority of known arrivals are from north west Africa, the Maghreb that stretches from Western Sahara through Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and to Libya. Groups of migrants were seen celebrating their safe arrival.
The report notes the Spanish socialist government in Madrid — which has recently enacted a radically pro-mass migration illegal migrant amnesty — has reacted with disinterest to the Ceuta administration’s calls for a state of emergency to be declared, and for assistance to be sent. The Spanish hard-left Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Thursday that “we are mobilizing all necessary resources, working with Moroccan and international authorities, and preparing the necessary measures to restore normality as soon as possible” but his government made clear it wouldn’t declare state of emergency because it doesn’t consider mass migration a threat to national security.
The issue “won’t be fixed just by sending more officers”, it was stated.
Despite those views from Madrid, El Pais reports that the migrant surge has already proven deadly. While multiple thousands made the short swim, at least two dozen are understood to have drowned.
While Ceuta itself is presently being overwhelmed by the weight of arrivals, those travelling to the Spanish city in North Africa will not, in practically all cases, stay there. The location is used as a spring-board to take advantage of Europe’s open internal travel area, and politicians from other countries with migrant-attracting welfare systems have already expressed concerns that these arrivals will soon be heading north. Alice Weidel, the leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), reacted to the shocking border footage and noted many of the migrants pictured would head straight to Germany, stating “2015 must not repeat itself”.
Brexit boss and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage likewise warned that many of these migrants would not hang around in Spain, a comparatively poor European country, and many would soon be making their way towards Britain. In a statement on Thursday evening he said: “it’s time to wake up everybody. Just have a look at these scenes… tens of thousands, maybe more, breaking into that little part of Spain. The authorities seemingly powerless to act”.
On the pull factor the Spanish socialist government has created that encourages migrant arrivals, Mr Farage went on: “bear this in mind, Spain gave an amnesty to half a million people who had illegally got into the country. The message from Spain are clear: come in and you’ll be allowed to stay”.
Warning that the same was coming to Britain and that Europe faces a battle for civilisation, the Reform leader stated: “those scenes you are seeing in Spain today, many of those young men, lots of them dangerous will be heading towards Calais and coming to our country too. It is time to wake up. This is a battle for the future of our civilisation, I can’t put it any more clearly than that.”