Spain

It’s now nearly nine weeks since tens of thousands of migrants poured across the Moroccan frontier into Ceuta. Most quickly returned to Morocco. But estimates of how many are still in Spain’s tiny North African exclave, which has a population of just 83,000, have varied alarmingly. At one point Madrid said that “only” about 5,000 remained. Government sources now accept that around 20,000 were still in Ceuta after July 30; last week Ángel Víctor Torres, the minister in charge of the crisis, put the current figure at around 18,000.

With Moroccan migrants still causing mayhem in Ceuta, police on mainland Spain are becoming less tolerant of third world behaviours.

📍 Front Marítim hotel, Barcelona. pic.twitter.com/gdqRBzrs84

— John .F. Kennedy Q 🌎 (@JFK_Q_PRD) September 30, 2026

If Fidel Castro was the “Robin Hood of the Caribbean,” Spain’s Pedro Sánchez is now the “Superman of Europe.” It’s been typeset by the New York Times in its headline saying Sánchez “Acts Fast” to head off the migrant crisis in Ceuta after 70,000 African invaders swarmed onto the Spanish territory last July 30, chanting “allahu akhbar.”

Ceuta day 52. pic.twitter.com/81pj0RYj6p

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) September 21, 2026

Foreign-born suspects account for nearly three-quarters of sexual-crime arrests in Basque Country, official figures show

Official statistics released by the Basque regional police, the Ertzaintza, indicate that people born outside Spain made up 58.7 percent of all arrests in the first half of 2026 even though they represent 10.2 percent of the population. The disparity is sharper in several high-profile offense categories.

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.