Spanish police moved thousands of migrants from the beaches of Ceuta to a newly established temporary camp in the territory's port area on Friday, in an operation marked by chaotic scenes, crowd surges, and shots fired into the air. The transfer, which began at dawn with more than 170 officers deployed including drone technicians, was intended to concentrate migrants in facilities where they can be identified and their individual legal status determined.
Ceuta is a small Spanish enclave of just 18.5 square kilometres on the northern tip of Africa, bordered by Morocco. In late July, more than 70,000 migrants crossed into the territory from Morocco in a mass border breach that left scores dead and sent shockwaves through European politics. While the vast majority returned to Morocco within hours, thousands remained. Authorities now estimate the number still in Ceuta at somewhere between 10,000 and 13,000, with the Spanish central government placing the figure at the lower end of that range.
As migrants jostled to secure one of the limited places at the port-area camp — which has a capacity for approximately 1,700 people — police fired warning shots into the air and used batons to control crowds. Several migrants were reported injured. Some broke through police cordons along the designated two-kilometre route to the port, with video footage showing young men running through the darkness as officers struggled to maintain order. According to the Spanish newspaper El País, thousands of people who did not secure a place were returned to the beaches, with one migrant summarising the outcome bluntly: "The law of the strongest has won."
The operation has reignited fierce political debate in Spain. Ceuta's conservative mayor, Juan Jesús Vivas, has described his city as a "pressure cooker," saying residents have "lost their joy" and their daily lives have been fundamentally disrupted. The opposition conservative People's Party has accused Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of prior knowledge of the crossing, pointing to government intelligence documents that reportedly warned of social media calls for a mass border crossing the day before it occurred. Sánchez has denied this was predictable, attributing the crisis to people-trafficking networks and disinformation spread online. Opposition figures have gone further, with former prime minister José María Aznar calling for the militarisation of the zone and People's Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo demanding the resignation of the socialist-led government.
The situation underscores the broader tensions between Ceuta's local authorities and the central government in Madrid, including a legal dispute over the port camp that was only resolved by a court ruling the day before Friday's operation. With thousands of migrants still living in precarious conditions on the beaches and Spain's security forces described as overstretched, the humanitarian and political crisis in the enclave shows little sign of resolution.