Protesters clash with police and torch migrant camps in Spanish enclave Ceuta

Beach clashes and aid blockades

Tensions in Ceuta escalated on Thursday when residents marched onto Benítez and Trampolín beaches, setting fire to makeshift shelters and belongings left by unhoused migrants. Demonstrators waving Spanish flags chanted slogans demanding the migrants leave and calling for the expulsion of the Red Cross. Before the camp was set ablaze, a sit-in of local residents blocked roads leading to the shore, preventing Red Cross vehicles from distributing food and water. Riot police intervened to separate the demonstrators from migrants who retreated onto a nearby pier, using charges, tear gas, and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Attacks on security forces and arrests

The beach unrest followed a series of altercations across the 18.5-square-kilometre enclave. Earlier on Thursday, a group of approximately 70 people threw stones and other objects at a Spanish military vehicle, leaving one soldier lightly injured. Police arrested 12 Moroccan nationals in connection with the vehicle attack. Two additional arrests took place after a separate assault on a police officer. The unrest follows local frustration in the city of 80,000 residents, where thousands of migrants have slept rough in public spaces and on beaches since entering the territory.

Political division in Madrid

The situation has intensified disputes within Spain's central government and between national parties. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska addressed parliament to demand an end to the violence, accusing right-wing parties of stoking confrontation in Ceuta.

I call for calm and an end to any form of violence, because violence is not the way to resolve any problem with the complexity of that facing Cueta.

Minister of Territorial Affairs Ángel Víctor Torres, granted powers to override local authorities in managing migrant-related operations, also addressed the hostility directed at humanitarian workers.

You can't attack immigrants for being immigrants. Red Cross workers who are from Ceuta should not feel threatened when they distribute food on Trampolín beach and made to feel that they don't want to do this voluntary work.

Internal government disagreements also emerged regarding intelligence warnings. Defense Minister Margarita Robles stated that the CNI intelligence service alerted authorities a day before the mass crossing, while Grande-Marlaska maintained that no warning of such magnitude was received.

Legal hurdles and the July influx

The unrest stems from a mass crossing between 30 and 31 July, when between 60,000 and 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta by swimming around the perimeter border fence. Over 100 people are believed to have drowned during the attempts. While the majority returned to Morocco shortly after arrival, thousands remain in the enclave. Official figures diverge on the remaining population: the central government estimates between 3,500 and 7,000 people, whereas local Ceuta authorities report at least 10,000.

Under international treaties and Spanish court rulings, collective expulsions are prohibited, requiring individual case reviews before deportations can proceed. Special protections apply to approximately 1,500 unaccompanied minors in the enclave, with plans underway to transfer 500 vulnerable individuals, primarily girls, to the Spanish mainland. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is scheduled to appear before parliament on 3 September to address the government's handling of the crisis.