Spain has deployed the army to its North African enclave of Ceuta hours after thousands of people walked and swam across the frontier from Morocco unopposed, in what Civil Guard associations have called an orchestrated operation rather than a migratory surge.
Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas put the number who entered over recent days at about 20,000, citing Civil Guard estimates. Police union sources used the same figure.
Moroccan state television reported 30,000 entries in 24 hours, a figure Spanish authorities have not confirmed. The city has some 84,000 residents.
Almost 3,000 people entered Ceuta illegally in the whole of this year up to July 15, on the Interior Ministry’s own numbers. The ministry has confirmed no total for July 30 and said its next migration report was due on August 3.
Crowds walked around the Tarajal breakwater and swam past the fence throughout the day, spilling onto local roads. Most were young Moroccan men, though families with women and children also crossed. Moroccan auxiliary forces withdrew as the crowds advanced.
The Civil Guard recovered 16 bodies from the water that day, bringing to 45 the number found dead off Ceuta this year, 26 of them during July.
Spain’s security forces read the day as something other than a migratory accident. Jucil, the largest Civil Guard professional association, called it “an orchestrated invasion” and demanded the interior minister’s resignation, saying the enclave’s establishment of 550 officers had been overwhelmed.
The police union Jupol said Rabat had exploited a window of opportunity, “using migratory pressure on Ceuta as an instrument of political blackmail”. Diplomatic sources quoted by El Español pointed the same way, though the Spanish Government has made no such accusation.
Rabat said cooperation with Madrid remained intact and blamed trafficking networks, denying any intention to encourage irregular departures. Morocco has opened the border before: about 8,000 people crossed over two days in May 2021, after Spain admitted the Polisario Front leader for hospital treatment.
Madrid moved more slowly than Rabat. Vivas declared a humanitarian and social emergency and asked the Government to take control, while the Ceuta assembly’s group leaders, the local Socialists included, unanimously sought a national security declaration, closure of the Tarajal crossing and deployment of the armed forces.
The Interior Ministry rejected a national emergency, saying civil protection rules do not treat migratory flows as a risk covered by the national system.
Troops were ordered in only on the evening of July 30, once the crossings had run for most of the day. Defence and Interior sources said they would operate under the Operations Command and support the Civil Guard on security tasks inside the city, not seal the frontier.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska travelled to the enclave on July 31, visiting the Tarajal border before chairing a coordination meeting at the Palace of the Assembly.
Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who had called for the National Security Act to be invoked, said of the response that “it is not capability that is lacking, but will”.
Madrid regional President Isabel Díaz Ayuso wrote on X that “Sánchez permits the invasion of Spain through Ceuta” to bury his legal troubles. Vox spokeswoman Pepa Millán described “an invasion of thousands of Moroccans breaching our borders”.
The argument over why they came points, from both directions, back to decisions taken in Madrid.
Spain’s Supreme Court ruled on July 8 that migrants intercepted at sea off Ceuta and Melilla cannot be summarily handed back, because open water does not provide the containment a border fence does. Ceuta authorities and Civil Guard associations have linked the surge directly to that judgment.
So, in effect, has the Government. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said the crossings stemmed from the ruling and bore no relation to migration policy.
Popular Party secretary general Miguel Tellado blamed the Government’s regularisation of illegal migrants, which drew almost 1.3 million applications, saying nobody could be surprised that people wanted to enter a country handing out papers. His party wants border rejections extended to sea arrivals at Ceuta and Melilla.
Government sources told Europa Press that none of those who crossed could join the scheme, which requires proof of residence in Spain before January 1, 2026 and five continuous months in the country.
The Melilla crossing was closed on July 30 after an attempted mass entry at Spain’s other North African city.
The crossings did not stay a Spanish problem for long. Italy threatened to suspend the Schengen agreement with Spain, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni saying Rome was ready to act to defend its borders.
Madrid summoned the Italian ambassador in protest. It did not summon the Moroccan one.
Home affairs commissioner Magnus Brunner offered financial, technical and operational support, including a Frontex deployment, and said the Commission was pressing Rabat to halt departures.
The EU migration and asylum pact, in force since June, contains a Crisis Regulation allowing member states to set aside normal standards where a hostile state is judged to be weaponising migration. Madrid has not invoked it.
