Pressure on alternative and even more dangerous sea routes (such as the one to the Canary Islands) remains at record levels
At the end of July 2026, the Spanish autonomous territory of Ceuta was flooded with over 60,000 migrants — mainly young men of Moroccan origin, but also unaccompanied minors and families with children.
The accommodation centres in the enclave were overwhelmed within hours. Centres for unaccompanied minors exceeded their capacity by over 2,400 per cent, whilst thousands of people were left out in the open on the beaches and in the streets of the city.
Within a matter of days, tens of thousands of people undertook a perilous crossing of the maritime border from Morocco, paralysing the local infrastructure and prompting emergency measures in Madrid and Brussels. The worst migration crisis in years has turned the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in North Africa into a hotspot of humanitarian and political tension. What actually happened?
