Thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta on Thursday, most swimming around the Tarajal breakwater, and Spain has sent in its armed forces to help restore control. At least nine people died during the crossings, according to Spain’s government delegation in Ceuta, which did not explain the circumstances.
Guardia Civil, Spain’s national police force, said migrants were entering the country “massively” from the sea. Rachid Sbihi, who heads the union representing Ceuta’s Civil Guard officers, said that the border had “totally collapsed.”
Spain’s state broadcaster TVE reported that 2,000 to 3,000 people crossed, though Reuters said it couldn’t independently confirm that figure. Video from the scene showed people swimming in on inflatable inner tubes and flotation rings, with some breaking through gates in the border fence.
Ceuta’s regional government has linked the surge to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that stripped authorities of their ability to summarily return migrants they intercept at sea, a tool they’d relied on for years. Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo called the result “desperate,” laying the blame on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government.
Local authorities in Ceuta asked Madrid to declare a national emergency. The Interior Ministry refused, but agreed to send in the armed forces to reinforce the Civil Guard instead. Ceuta’s president, Juan Vivas, had warned days earlier that the enclave had run out of space. “There is no more room for anyone,” he said.
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The crisis has strained relations with Italy, which doesn’t even border Spain. Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani called for Spain’s suspension from the Schengen zone, tying the crossings to Madrid’s decision to regularize more than 500,000 undocumented migrants. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni backed him.
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, summoned the Italian ambassador in response, calling the comments inappropriate and saying Spain expects “European solidarity, not partisan demagoguery.” Sánchez and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska plan to visit Ceuta Friday.
Back in May 2021, roughly 8,000 people got into Ceuta over a two-day stretch, the enclave’s last major crisis. An 8-kilometer barrier of fencing, cameras, and surveillance towers separates Ceuta from Morocco, and it hasn’t stopped determined crossings in the years since.
