At least 67 dead in Ceuta migrant surge; Spain says 48,000 returned to Morocco

Mass arrival turns deadly

Since early last week, a surge of migrants, overwhelmingly Moroccan, began crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast. They came from the neighbouring Moroccan town of Fnideq, scaling or bypassing tall barbed-wire border fences or swimming around them in the sea. Estimates of the total number vary: Juan Jesus Vivas, the president of Ceuta’s local government, said more than 60,000 entered, while Spain’s interior ministry put the figure at around 50,000. Most were young men and teenagers, many using flimsy plastic buoys. At the peak on Thursday 30 July, eyewitnesses said some 200 people crossed the border every minute.

The human cost was severe. On Saturday morning, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska announced from Ceuta that at least 67 people had died, describing the events as “sad, dramatic.” Most deaths were drownings; earlier tallies had been lower. Local authorities on Friday reported 34 dead, while a Franceinfo broadcast late Friday cited 57 dead. A police source quoted by 7sur7 said 18 people had drowned. The final toll is expected to climb as searches continue. On the beach near the border, exhausted survivors and the bodies of those who did not make it accumulated.

One survivor, a 42-year-old Moroccan named Soufiane, told AFP he had received a tip-off that the border was open. He swam across in “three, five minutes,” hoping to reach Madrid to see his mother, who he said was being treated for leukaemia. The rush, he added, showed “that everyone wants to go up (to Spain) and wishes to have a good future, which they don’t have in Morocco.”

A friend called me, he told me the border was open.

Rapid returns under army watch

Almost as quickly as they arrived, the vast majority were sent back. By Friday evening, the Spanish government said “the quasi-totality” of those who had entered Ceuta had been returned to Morocco, a figure it put at 48,000. Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares confirmed the scale of the returns.

Almost all of those who entered Ceuta have already returned to Morocco.

Soldiers patrolled the waterfront, pushing lingerers towards the border. AFP reporters at the beach saw two men who had crossed back from Ceuta collapse on the sand, too exhausted to stand. Many migrants turned around voluntarily after finding the enclave overwhelmed with no shelter or food. One told AFP: “There are too many people here, everything is full.” Local residents grew increasingly uneasy; a shopkeeper said customers were asking for home deliveries because they were afraid to go outside.

A barrier and a reinforced border

To halt any further sea crossings, the Spanish interior ministry announced on Saturday morning the installation of a 500-metre pneumatic barrier in the Mediterranean along the route used by swimmers. The measure was an emergency response. Meanwhile, France said it would multiply by five the number of police and gendarmes at its border with Spain, a sign of broader European anxiety about the sudden influx.

Political undercurrents and protests

The crisis did not arise in isolation. France 24 noted that similar episodes have erupted in the past, often linked to political tensions between Madrid and Rabat. This episode came shortly after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Algeria, Morocco’s regional rival, on 20 July, a trip some observers connected to a relaxation of Moroccan border controls. Separately, a Spanish Supreme Court ruling had recently declared illegal the immediate expulsion of people arriving by sea, a factor that may have encouraged the surge.

In Madrid on Friday evening, several hundred anti-immigration protesters, many dressed in black, gathered outside the Moroccan embassy. They chanted “Spain, Christian and not Muslim!” and held a banner reading “Remigration,” a concept promoted by Europe’s far-right parties. Sánchez, who visited Ceuta on Friday, faced criticism from locals who accused him of failing to protect the enclave. Grande-Marlaska said an emergency meeting had brought calm: “In less than 48 hours, the situation in Ceuta has nothing to do and a return to normal is under way.”