Spain

Ceuta, population 83,000, suffered what is being described as its worst night of vandalism last night since some 70,000 migrants poured across the Moroccan border at the end of July. Vehicles and rubbish containers were set alight in several districts, fires were started among belongings in migrant encampments and police intervened in several fights between migrants.

Madrid puts the number remaining in its North African exclave at around 5,000. But current estimates in Ceuta suggest it is almost double.

On Wednesday night, I was among an ocean of people who had descended on Madrid’s ayuntamiento in the Plaza de Cibeles. It was part of huge nationwide protests sparked by the Ceuta fiasco against the government of Pedro Sánchez. Various reports put the crowd somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 people. In any event, the Plaza de Cibeles was full, people were flooding down Paseo del Prado, and, in the other direction, stretching to the iconic Círculo de Bellas Artes.

The Ceuta crisis has taken on a new dimension with the U.S. president commenting on what is happening in the enclave in a television interview.

Donald Trump has entered the dispute directly with a harsh attack on Madrid while, almost simultaneously, another member of the Moroccan government has once again laid claim to the Spanish city.

President Trump Calls What Happened in Ceuta WORSE Than an Invasion, Warns It Will DESTROY The Country

"When you see something like Spain, In a certain way that is an invasion of a country. It's actually in many worse worse than a military invasion, that country will be… pic.twitter.com/irc86Grm0s

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 3, 2026

The official account of what happened in Ceuta on July 30th has just suffered its most serious blow from within the Spanish state itself.

A confidential report prepared by the National Police’s Centre for Immigration and Borders (CENIF) maintains that the mass entry was not a spontaneous phenomenon caused simply by traffickers, social media, or a temporary failure of Morocco’s border-control apparatus, as the government and media outlets aligned with it have argued for the past month.

When they told you Ceuta was sorted it was a lie
It's hell on Earth
African illegal migrants have destroyed that city

When will Europe wake up and realise this insanity must stop pic.twitter.com/08xjLvWj3Q

— Basil the Great (@BasilTheGreat) September 2, 2026

The attack targeting a military patrol in the Benzú area of Ceuta last night was a pre-planned ambush rather than a spontaneous clash, according to preliminary findings from the National Police. Now, military sources are speaking of soldiers who are unable to use physical force, have no weapons, and are vulnerable to such attacks in the future.

The Spanish patriots in Ceuta are not joking anymore. See with your own eyes. https://t.co/sn1HvD2edI pic.twitter.com/O1IOHeJd9S

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) August 28, 2026

A leak involving tens of thousands of members of Morocco’s security apparatus has opened a new chapter in the Ceuta crisis.

The hacker group Jabaroot claims to have published personal and professional information on around 70,000 agents and police officers linked mainly to the domestic intelligence service —DGST— and the General Directorate for National Security —DGSN— and has presented the operation as a “gift to Spain” following the mass entry on July 30.

It has been almost three weeks since more than 72,000 migrants invaded Ceuta. Since then, the Spanish government has tried to reassure the world that most of those who entered the territory illegally have now returned to Morocco and order has been restored. But as growing reports of women and girls being sexually assaulted make clear, this is far from the case.

Spain’s National Police began clearing an improvised camp on the beaches of Ceuta on Thursday morning, where more than 4,000 migrants had remained since the mass crossing on July 30th.

Twenty days have passed since that border crisis, and the Spanish autonomous city is still struggling to return to a normality that remains distant.

Moroccan police have blocked a second attempt by migrants to cross the border into Ceuta en masse.

Riot police were deployed at the border on Saturday as hundreds prepared to storm the Spanish territory, two weeks after tens of thousands made the crossing.

Migrants gathered in the border town of Castillejos after calls were made on social media encouraging a second attempt.

This is the moment a migrant paraglides into Europe from north Africa – a day after another died trying the same stunt.

Police were still searching for the sub-Saharan man today after he vanished shortly after landing at the Benzu viewpoint in Ceuta close to its land border with Morocco.

Spanish cops said today people smugglers charging migrants to make the risky air crossing were being given courses lasting just a few minutes instead of the 80 to 100 hours of training normally considered appropriate before risking their lives taking to the skies.

🇪🇸‼️🚨 MIGRANTS PARAGLIDE INTO SPAIN

Migration into Ceuta continues, slower but ongoing!

Previously trucks brought people to the border and told them to go to Spain; now traffickers push people in paragliders towards Ceuta.

Crazy… this footage reminds me of something. https://t.co/hHl9r6Jrci pic.twitter.com/fJ9xFnVtxj

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) August 9, 2026

Spain is bracing for a possible second mass migrant crossing into Ceuta as the political fallout from last week’s unprecedented border breach spreads from Madrid to Brussels.

The Guardia Civil is closely monitoring social media messages calling on migrants to gather in the Moroccan border town of Castillejos on August 15 before attempting to enter the Spanish enclave.

Criminals previously banished from Spain on jihadism charges were detected among the massive swam of illegal migrants that invaded Ceuta last week, unnamed Spanish law enforcement sources disclosed on Tuesday.

🚨BREAKING: The Bacon Squad introduces a new checkpoint test in Ceuta. pic.twitter.com/T1RDXm5WWS

— Dr. Clown, PhD (@DrClownPhD) August 4, 2026

It is estimated that more than 50,000 migrants crossed entered the small Spanish enclave of Ceuta in the course of a single day after the border effectively collapsed.

Ceuta, an autonomous city, sits on Morocco’s northern coast. The Spanish government has said almost all of the migrants have since returned to Morocco, and at least 57 have died.

Faced with doubts as to how and why this was able to happen, the public was left with only footage and photographs: people swimming and climbing onto Ceuta’s Tarajal beach, tens of thousands in a single day and night, scores dead.

They didn’t “crossed entered” they invaded.

🚨 Here is the truth from Ceuta, Spain:
60,000+ migrants from Morocco’s border stormed the small town and are now hiding in the mountains and city to reach mainland Europe.

Moroccan migrants said Moroccan authorities let them through their border and Spain literally opened their… pic.twitter.com/xNbfLiAa9N

— Nick shirley (@nickshirleyy) August 3, 2026

h/t Patti Jo

A growing chorus of voices have accused Morocco of helping to fuel the crisis in Ceuta, with the leader of the Spanish enclave describing last week’s border crossings as an attack on Spain’s territorial integrity that was seen as being “if not orchestrated, at least encouraged or permitted by Morocco”.

Spain’s interior ministry said late last week that 48,300 of the roughly 50,000 people who had turned up in Ceuta, a tiny Spanish territory in north Africa, had been sent back to Morocco. The extraordinary influx had overwhelmed the city of 84,000 and set off a political crisis across the EU as some member states laid blame on Spain.

🇪🇸 In Ceuta, a crowd of illegal Moroccan migrants is already establishing its own rules in the city

The crowd shouts “Allahu Akbar” at National Guard officers and drags a wounded migrant through the streets in protest against being returned home. pic.twitter.com/Q27cvVFLTW

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 3, 2026

More … Huge mob of Moroccans chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ clash with Spanish police after marching through Ceuta as enclave remains gripped by fear

Amid the international clamour over Ceuta, the Spanish city invaded by 60,000 migrants from Morocco, there has been a noticeable hush from one quarter: the Left.

There have been no rallies in solidarity with the Moroccans, no celebratory tweets from the Greens’ Zack Polanski. Labour backbenchers seldom silent on these matters can be heard on neither television nor radio.

It is as though socialists and other progressives recognise that events on the shores of the Mediterranean expose the grim reality that underlies their utopian worldview. Their dream, when put into practice, becomes a nightmare.

🇲🇦🇪🇸 A Spanish resident of Ceuta recorded the scenes he encountered on his way to work.

Follow: @europa pic.twitter.com/ux22g5bIko

— Europa.com (@europa) August 1, 2026