Leader of Spain's Ceuta warns of emergency as 1,500 migrants arrive in one week
Local leaders said reception centers are saturated and asked Madrid for army support as arrivals averaged about 300 a day, officials said.
- On Thursday, July 30, 2026, Ceuta leader Juan Jesus Vivas declared a humanitarian and security emergency after 1,500 migrants reached the Spanish enclave by swimming from Morocco over the past week.
- Vivas told Cadena SER that facilities for unaccompanied minors are operating at 2,400% of capacity, leaving hundreds of migrants sleeping outdoors as reception systems remain overwhelmed.
- The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that migrants intercepted at sea cannot be summarily returned, complicating enforcement; Vivas noted 60 bodies were recovered at sea in recent months.
- Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska will travel to Ceuta on Friday to coordinate assistance, while Vivas called for a "decisive, forceful, immediate and coordinated" response under a single command structure.
- Arrivals currently average about 300 people daily, raising fears of a crisis comparable to May 2021 when 10,000 people entered in days; Moroccan security forces are helping curb crossings.
274 Articles
274 Articles
The Spanish authorities announced that they would deploy troops to the town of Ceuta, a Spanish exclav in northern Africa bordering Morocco, to enhance security against the background of the migration crisis.
Spain is sending troops to Ceuta; local authorities are calling it a crisis situation. It is unclear why so many people are making the crossing right now.
More than 1,500 people from Morocco have flocked to the Spanish border in recent days.
Thousands of migrants have swum from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa. Follow the latest developments here.
The leader of the autonomous Spanish city Ceuta, located in northern Africa, said Thursday that the hundreds of migrants who entered this territory in the last week, from Morocco, overwhelm the local resources and asked the government of Madrid to intervene. BBC noted that the information about the frequency of these days' passage is contradictory. The Spanish press ...
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