Spain Deploys Troops as 49,000 Storm Ceuta Border
Spanish and Moroccan forces have reinforced the border fence of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta after approximately 49,000 people arrived by sea and land in a single day, marking the largest migration surge since May 2021 and prompting Spain to deploy military units while Italy threatened to suspend the EU’s internal open border scheme .
The mass crossing into Ceuta, a Spanish-held peninsula of roughly 85,000 people on Morocco’s northern coast, caused division in Europe, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni threatening to suspend the Schengen Area with Spain . Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was due to visit Ceuta on Friday with Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, while the government said it would send the Armed Forces to help the Civil Guard “maintain security in the city of Ceuta” .
Spanish authorities said at least 19 bodies have been found in the water, with officials reporting that among those who crossed illegally were approximately 7,000 minors . The crisis follows a Spanish Supreme Court ruling earlier in July that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or Melilla cannot be summarily returned under special “border rejection” rules . Spain’s Territorial Policy Minister Angel Victor Torres said the government would proceed to eventually return the migrants while respecting court rulings and migrants’ rights .
At the gates into Ceuta, Moroccan authorities deployed water cannon trucks and pushed people back, while the charred remains of a bus and seven cars could be seen nearby from clashes with crowds . On the Moroccan side of the border, thousands of migrants streamed into the town of Fnideq overnight despite a reinforced security deployment . Spanish state television reported that 2,000 to 3,000 people crossed initially, while video footage showed hundreds of migrants swimming or floating on inner tubes from the Moroccan side and others breaking through a gate on land .
Ceuta and Melilla, the other Spanish autonomous city in northern Morocco, have the European Union’s only land borders with Africa . Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings, but nearly 50,000 crossings in a single day appears unprecedented since at least 2021, when more than 10,000 people entered the enclave in days . In 2023, irregular crossings from northern Morocco to Spain had seen a 75% drop due to enhanced security measures, making the current surge particularly striking .
Ceuta authorities had warned the previous day that migrant reception centers were overwhelmed after more than 1,500 migrants entered the territory in the past week . Ceuta Mayor Juan Jesus Vivas urged the national government to declare an emergency over the mass arrivals . As of July 15, nearly 3,000 migrants had entered Ceuta by land or sea this year, a 149.4% increase compared to 2025, according to interior ministry figures .
Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said her country was prepared “to intervene with extraordinary measures to defend the borders and the safety of citizens, including the suspension of the Schengen Area with Spain” . Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote that the images from Ceuta showed how the Madrid government’s decision to grant Spanish and European citizenship to over 500,000 irregular immigrants “is profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking” . Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares replied that Tajani’s message was “inappropriate” and said Spain expected “solidarity and not partisan demagoguery” from its partner, adding that he would summon the Italian ambassador to protest .
The European Commission offered to reinforce support to Spain with financial, technical and operational assistance, including through the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex . The EU’s Home Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner said the bloc was working with Moroccan authorities to prevent dangerous crossings .
Spain’s Socialist government says immigrants help strengthen the economy and has offered a mass amnesty that saw hundreds of thousands of people seek citizenship in the past year . However, conservative opposition People’s Party leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo said in a post on X: “The situation in Ceuta is desperate. The government cannot look the other way because we are facing a national security crisis” . The Spanish government said it was the “exploitation by mafias and criminal organisations” of the Supreme Court ruling that had triggered the migrant surge, not its bid to give legal status to undocumented migrants .