Spain: The Migrant Avalanche Continues in Ceuta

Last week, we reported on the story of a 75-year-old woman who was found murdered in Spain while out walking her dog. A young Moroccan man (18) is in custody, charged with her murder. 

This is at a time when the liberal government of Pedro Sánchez wants to regularize the status of hundreds of thousands of migrants illegally in the country (many from Latin America). In addition, the Spanish Supreme Court has ruled this month that Spanish border guards cannot “push back” migrants from North and Sub-Saharan Africa who have managed to cross the barriers at the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which are located on the North African coast and border Morocco. That has led directly to the arrival of some 1,500 migrants, mostly Moroccans, Algerians, and Sub-Saharan Africans, who have accessed Ceuta by swimming from Morocco. Not surprisingly, deaths by drowning have also occurred.

The below article from El Independiente is translated by Fousesquawk. 

Inundation in Ceuta in the face of a new “migration crisis” by more than 1,500 arrivals from Morocco by swimming 

Ceuta is living in a critical situation after the entry in recent days of hundreds of immigrants swimming from Morocco. With the reception centers “inundated and saturated”, the Ceuta authorities have asked the central government for a decisive response to confront what they already call a “migration crisis”.

The recent data provided by the president of Ceuta, the popular Juan Jesus Vivas, shows the magnitude of the arrivals: 1,500 in the last fortnight of July, 200 per day. The arrivals of the migrants (who arrive by) swimming) have increased exponentially in the last week. This avalanche has resulted (in the fact) that the reception centers of the city cannot provide for all of the people who have succeeded in getting to Ceuta.

According to what Efe (news) has been able to confirm, hundreds of Moroccans, Algerians, and, to a lesser extent, Sub-Saharans, are waiting on the access street to the Temporary Immigrant Detention Center (CETI) to gain access to its interior. With an overwhelmed system, these people have no other option than to wait on the street while Ceuta authorities search for a solution to the crisis.

The centers for minors are also at the limit. Vivas explained that at this moment, space for minors is at 1,600% of capacity. In the face of this situation, the president of Ceuta has asked for an “immediate, decisive, and energetic” response on the part of the government of Pedro Sánchez. In addition, he is asking that measures be adopted to avoid this type of crisis being repeated in the future.

The crisis of 2021 remains in the collective memory when thousands of immigrants crossed to Ceuta and Melilla after Morocco relaxed its border controls. The decision of the Moroccan authorities was a form of retaliation against the Spanish government, which, in April of that same year, allowed the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, to receive treatment for Covid at a hospital in Logroño.

The president of Ceuta referred to this episode, warning that with the current rate of arrivals, the city could be confronted with numbers similar to those experienced in 2021. During that crisis, the total of immigrants who managed to enter the autonomous city reached 12,000 persons. 

Supreme Court ruling against pushbacks

The local authorities believe that the origin of the current crisis is a ruling handed down by the Supreme Court, which was made public last July 8. In the resolution, the high court established that “it was not permitted to apply the rejection at the border, also known as pushbacks, to migrants intercepted at sea who were attempting to enter the cities of Ceuta and Melilla by swimming.”

In view of the ruling handed down by the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, Vivas asked that his party and the PSOE, “come to an agreement” to legalize pushbacks. “The ruling has eliminated one of the resources the agents had to extend the border and now it must be reactivated with a modification in the law,” he said in statements to reporters for Efe.

The Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) of Ceuta has also expressed its concern regarding the above ruling. In this regard, they have asked that any change in procedures stemming from the ruling, “be accompanied by an increase in personnel, more material equipment, and clear operating protocols”. They have also requested “clear, standardized, and written operating instructions that provide legal certainty to the agents”.

Three dead recovered in Malaga

The tragedy has taken on a new dimension in the past hours after the discovery of three cadavers on the coasts of Malaga by Maritime Rescue. The principal hypothesis is that they are immigrants who drowned trying to cross from Morocco to Ceuta by swimming and whose bodies were pulled by the current toward the mainland coast.

The Andalusian president of Vox (party), Manuel Gavira, was one of the first to react to the news, using it to criticize those who feed the “pull effect”. “This is also the most terrible face of an irresponsible migration policy that feeds false expectations and pushes thousands of people to risk their lives on our coasts,” he said.   

In the case of Ceuta, this type of incident is not unusual. Sadly, the migration pressure that the city is experiencing is also translated into deaths and disappearances. The president of the city has put the number at 60, the persons whose lives have been lost at sea during the last 2 months. It is the statistic that is “most serious, painful and hard,” Vivas stressed.

And according to the Civil Guard, so far this year, 27 bodies have been recovered around the Ceuta coast. A third of them (8) were found during the month of July. Four cadavers were found this weekend, coinciding with the peak of the arrivals in the autonomous city.

Source: http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2026/07/spain-migrant-avalanche-continues-in.html