‘Absolute chaos’ as thousands of people breach Morocco’s border with Spain's Ceuta
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
CEUTA, Spain (AP) — Thousands of migrants streamed into the tiny Spanish territory of Ceuta from Morocco on Thursday, prompting local officials to call on Spain to declare a national emergency and send the army to restore the frontier.
Spain's interior ministry said it would guarantee the safety of citizens and the integrity of the nation's border, but that the government could not declare a national emergency over migration concerns.
“The situation is absolute chaos,” said Rachid Sbihi, head of the association that represents Spain's Civil Guard officers in Ceuta, who police the border. “It's not possible to give precise numbers, but there are thousands of migrants crossing,” he said, adding that the border had “totally collapsed.”
Achraf Maimouni, a member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights in northern Morocco, described the situation as ‘’exceptional.''
“The Tarajal border was opened under unusual circumstances this morning and people crossed,'' he said.
Video footage showed crowds of people, mainly Moroccans, walking around the breakwaters at Tarajal beach onto local roads. While the majority appeared to be young men, there were also families with women and children. “Viva España!” some shouted to a freelance photographer working for The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear what prompted so many migrants to cross to Ceuta.
Arrivals had been increasing, but reasons still unclear
The escalation at the frontier between Spain and Morocco comes after a surge in migrants attempting to reach the small exclave, mainly by swimming, on Wednesday. At least three people died yesterday attempting to reach Ceuta by sea, Sbihi and activists in both Morocco and Ceuta reported.
Moroccan authorities have not publicly commented on the crossings, and the interior ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said the Moroccan government was “closely cooperating” with Spain to handle the situation and that Moroccan police are stopping “numerous people” who are trying to cross the border. Both countries agreed to work together “for the return, as soon as possible, of all the people who entered Ceuta illegally.”
Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the Spanish Interior Minister, will travel to Ceuta on Friday to evaluate the situation.
Ceuta authorities had previously linked the spike to a Spanish Supreme Court decision earlier this month that migrants who arrive by sea cannot be immediately pushed back across the border without due process, unlike those who cross into Spain by land — by climbing over the border fence, for example.
But some activists in Morocco expressed doubt that the ruling was behind the surge, arguing most migrants would have been unaware of such legal decisions.
Spain is a main point of arrival into Europe for migrants seeking better economic opportunities or an escape from violence in their home countries.
To reach Ceuta, located on the northern African coast, migrants often swim from the Moroccan town of Fnideq, covering about 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) to reach Spanish territory. Others attempt the crossing from the nearby town of Belyounech, where the distance is shorter.
The scenes of people streaming across the frontier recall the border crisis of May 2021 when more than 8,000 migrants poured into Ceuta in just two days.
At the time, Morocco was accused of easing border controls and allowing migrants to cross into the Ceuta after Spain allowed Morocco rival, Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali, to receive medical treatment at a Spanish hospital, triggering a diplomatic crisis between Rabat and Madrid.
The pro-independence Polisario Front for decades has claimed to be the legitimate representative of the indigenous Sahrawi people of the Western Sahara, disputed with Morocco.
Ceuta authorities ask Madrid to declare emergency, send army
Juan Jesús Vivas, the head of Ceuta's regional government, called for the national government to declare a national emergency on grounds of national security, asking for more police and for the army to be deployed on the border.
Vivas said the additional police and soldiers would be necessary “to guarantee the inviolability of the frontier and citizen safety.”
He had warned on Wednesday that migrant reception centers were overwhelmed with hundreds of people sleeping on the streets after more than 1,500 migrants entered the territory in the past week. But thousands more crossed overnight and Thursday.
Spain's Interior Ministry, which tracks irregular migration, would not confirm the number of migrants who had made it to Ceuta in the last few days but said it would publish its next migration report on Aug. 3. As of July 15, nearly 3,000 migrants had entered Ceuta by land or sea this year, according to ministry figures.
Legislation covering a declaration of national emergencies does not consider migration flows as a risk to national security, according to the ministry, which said government administrations are “coordinating to respond with speed and efficacy to the situation in Ceuta.”
Ceuta, which is perched on a historical isthmus, has been a Spanish possession since 1580. Its mixed population of Christians and Muslims, Spanish and Moroccan residents and day workers, live in relative harmony behind a border fence that many desperate migrants from across Africa attempt to cross for a better life in Europe.
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Spain has lost control of its border and is effectively being invaded as thousands of military age men (almost no women) continue to stream across its border, no doubt encouraged by the socialist's pm's mass amnesty. Which means Europe is being invaded given the freedom of internal movement.
Search Ceuta on X if you want to see videos of what a modern invasion looks like. It's like seeing the barbarians cross the Rhine, but now with iphone video.
And if Democrats win in 2029, the similar scences will undoubtedly be much closer to home, as we saw during Joe Biden's open border era.
they'll be plenty of room for immigrants that want to be good americans, with a constitution, due process, and free and fair elections, right after the mass deportation of the traitorous and child molester protecting cult of maga christo-fascists takes place. maga wants a forever war in the middle east. put them in the neighborhood with access to their religious enemies by land, sea, and air ...
Which, of course, you, et al, leftists tend to ignore when accepting millions of illegal aliens instead of them taking the legal steps to come here.
what about all the others coming in that don't want to be good Americans? Joe let them all in and the dems were cheering him on.
Sans weapons and much clothing, terrifying... /s
What a stupid, lame-assed comment. It doesn’t take weapons to freeload off a society run by gullible morons. And no doubt, some will commit crimes. I guess both are ok with some.
no, it just takes a fascist with a pen, especially when you have a complicit congress and SCOTUS ...
I wouldn’t call biden a facsist, but he was gullible as hell when it came to the border.
He was totally unaware of what was going on. Remember his handlers refusing there was even a problem on the border?
Bet you people in the area they are going to are not saying that. Good sticking to the narrative though.
of course not, only idiots would ...
more like it is in the west wing, now ...
Is that where shitbag hunter left his coke?
Thanks.
You do realize that Ceuta is basically a city state attached to North Africa near the Strait of Gibraltar, don't you?
There is no way off to Europe that Spain does not control. Spain, then Portugal and Spain, then Spain again have for 500 years refused to relinquish the peninsula and port to Morocco
for the same reason the British refuse to give up Gibraltar on the other side of the Strait.
They have a DMZ / neutral zone patrolled by a Spanish Military Fort.
on either side of the peninsula it is common for Moroccan to try to swim the distance in the Atlantic or Mediterranea to try to reach Spanish soil for asylum.
The troops were not amused today and redeployed, killing at least 10 of the "barbarians" in the process apparently using the swimmers as target practice.
Those wo made it might be processesed and then again they maybe returned to Morocco on a bus.
Just another moment of drama in the long drawn out BS of European Colonialism that just won't die.
in other words this is an unofficial provocation by Morocco. The have not's versus the haves, again.
maybe you should address that to Madrid, Spain.
No doubt, maybe some will and maybe some just don't give a fuck about Morocco or Spain's self-inflicted problems.
I don't.
Please note the "neutral zone"
at the North end of the Neutral zone the relatively small swim zone in the Strait of Gibraltar that is a natural barrier that most swimmers eschew.
They try the warm mild waters of the Mediterranean at the south end of the neutral zone.
The Spanish military made target practice out of many of them once they responded to the "invasion", the largest since 2021.
Just another day of Morocco trying to get it's "occupied territory" back after 500 years of occupation by Spain, Portugal or both.
Yes, who cares? It shares a border it was overrun.
here is no way off to Europe that Spain does not control.
Yet somehow Spain just gave amnesty to a million illegals, mainly of north African descent?
Why? Because if "swim" to Ceuta, like many of those thousands did today, they can't be immedaitely sent back.
killing at least 10 of the "barbarians" in the process apparently using the swimmers as target practice
Where's your souce for this? Just making things up?
st another moment of drama in the long drawn out BS of European Colonialism that just won't die.
Lol. Somebody doesn't know their history. You know the north African moors famously colonized Spain, right? The literate comparison is to the Moorish invasion.
No. Trump gives willingly to some.
Did screaming liberal guy find the lord and is now singing the praises of his Savior Donald Trump like all the other gullible simpletons?
Do you often wonder about what came first, the chicken or the egg?
The Moors came in 711 and transformed Spain. Spain should be thanking them but that's not how people are wired. Christians vs Muslims over and over again.
Starting with the fall of Grenada in 1492, the Moors were systematically removed from Spain by 1610.
There may even be a lesson for the trump Administration in the history.
The kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia were so efficient in removing their Moorish descendants that the economy and the kingdoms collapsed.
People left and the bubonic plaque came.
Good times.
Ceuta officials say 25,000 have been returned to Morocco already and they continue to be returned at rate of 150 per minute.
Bodies collected between Morocco and Cueta total 85 at one source and 57 at another. Including death by stampede, drowning and other.
Spain admitted to using live ammunition while firing "warning shots".
Reporters report dozens of bodies still floating in the water.
What news are you watching?
Out of the 60,000 who crossed the border in 24 hours. Great.
pain admitted to using live ammunition while firing "warning shots".
You claimed troops killed at least 10 migrants. Where is your proof?
News that didn't make up claims about the Spanish military "killing at least 10 of the "barbarians" in the process apparently using the swimmers as target practice"
Just perfect. Of course. When Muslims take over a country, the colonized should be thankful. The progressive world view perfectly encapsulated.
Thanks for admitting your Islamophobia.
Do try to get a real life.
Laughing at your claim that Spain should be thankful for being colonized is "islamaphobia?" You probbaly should look that word up.
Who else should be grateful for being colonized? The Indians in America? Or should only white people be thankful for being colonized?
That's not what I said at all but this is of course your M.O.
Your constant reaction to Muslims as a bad thing is Islamophobia and you should probably use spell check.
The Moors crushed the Germanic Visigoths from the Balkans in 711 after 250 aimless years where the Visigoths were happy just to have beaten the Romans in 411.
They were more or less just barbarians; civilization was stagnant on the Iberian.
The Berbers brought education, science, their own architecture and embodied and advanced the Greek & Persian ideals.
City planning, waterworks, gardens citrus fruits, calligraphy, ceramics, music and language.
The coexistence of Christianity, Judaism and Islam under one system of governance for 600 years was pretty remarkable given the Pope's interferences
and in 1215 basically began the Crusades by giving the "have nots" Catholic Kingdoms permission to attack the "haves" in the Muslim City States.
It may have taken another 200 years for the Catholics to win the Iberian Crusades but every single facet of modern Spain and Spanish language, culture and cuisine
was radically and positively affected by the Moorish influences.
Fact.
Not nearly as willingly as biden n co.
Spain is very generous to aliens. They even gave them legal recourse.
Let's see if Socialism once again destroys the people it represents.
Unless they play soccer much better than the Spanish squad, there's literally no chance any of these men ever set foot in Iberia
They are probably the people who bet against the Morocco Soccer team and bet on Spain to win, lolo.
the peruvians and colombians I watched the finals with were definitely rooting for spain. argentina doesn't seem very popular in south america. probably because of the past nazi DNA infusions ...
It is amusing how many democrats partisan claim to abhor open borders and say they support having borders, but seeing thousands of foreign men simply crash the border doesn’t bother them at all. We see it in their reaction Spain, we saw it in their Reaction to Biden inviting millions across the southern border. They fight to keep illegal alien child rapists and all every other type of criminal from being deported.
They want open borders. They just won’t admit it.