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By Matthew Robinson
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Photos and video from Ceuta, Spain, on Friday showed soldiers patrolling the border, discarded flotation devices blanketing beaches and hundreds of migrants gathered in streets following an unprecedented surge into the North African enclave.
Juan Jesús Vivas, head of Ceuta's local government, said Friday that an estimated 60,000 people crossed from Morocco beginning Thursday—equivalent to 70 percent of the city's population. Spain's Interior Ministry reported that roughly 25,000 migrants had since turned back.
At least 43 people died by Friday afternoon, according to the Spanish news agency EFE, which cited police sources.
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The authorities in Ceuta and Madrid have linked the border surge to a recent decision by the Spanish Supreme Court, which ruled that migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily deported, unlike those who cross by land or climb the border fence.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who visited Ceuta on Friday, said migrant smugglers misinterpreted the ruling.
The interpretation of the ruling “spread like wildfire over the past few hours through the networks of human trafficking organizations,” triggering the surge, he said.
Migration and human rights activists said social media posts and misinformation helped fuel the departures.
“The departures were promoted in a certain way. At first, people were hearing that the border was open, and then everyone started referring to the Spanish court decision. That contributed to the crossings,” Achraf Maimouni, a human-rights activist, told the Associated Press.
Spain deployed additional troops and police to Ceuta, while Morocco dispatched extra officers and water-cannon trucks to disperse crowds near the border. Madrid also stated it would process and return individuals who entered unlawfully.
The crisis prompted immediate international fallout. Italy and Finland called for Spain to lose its Schengen area membership, which permits passport-free travel across much of Europe.
"Spain has completely failed to protect the Schengen Area's external border from infiltration," Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen wrote on X on Friday. "This cannot continue. All European countries must support [Italian Prime Minister Giorgia] Meloni's proposal. Countries that do not fulfill their obligation to protect the external border cannot be members of Schengen."
In the United States, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance condemned the situation, calling it "terrible" and "an unfortunate reminder of the consequences of mass migration and the radical left-wing globalist policies that have enabled the Invasion of the West."
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Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Matthew Robinson and Anthony Murray.
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