Seventy-two thousand people in two days. Ceuta has about eighty-four thousand inhabitants.
On 30 and 31 July 2026, people from Morocco crossed into Ceuta in columns several kilometres long, on foot around the breakwater at El Tarajal beach, or swimming. The Interior Ministry’s figure: about 72,000 entries, and around 70,000 back in Morocco within days, most of them on their own.
At El Tarajal, where waves, concrete and the crowd met, people drowned and were crushed. Spain’s government delegation counted 78 dead in Spanish waters; the NGO Caminando Fronteras puts the total at 141, counting the Moroccan side. Spanish services concluded that Moroccan authorities allowed and facilitated the crossings, without proof they planned them; Morocco blamed trafficking networks and rumours on social media. Pedro Sánchez called it a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity, and Brussels offered Frontex.
What’s left two months later are the children. At the end of September Ceuta was looking after 2,130 unaccompanied minors, in a system built for 29, and local groups estimate another 700 to 1,000 living in the streets.
The ancient Greeks had a rule for the stranger at the door, and it started with a bath and a meal: Xenia.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_migratoria_de_Ceuta_de_2026