Ceuta experienced this Thursday the largest migration crisis in its recent history when thousands of individuals from Morocco illegally crossed into the Spanish autonomous city by walking and swimming along the Tarajal dock.
When the flow was still active, police estimates collected by the media ABC placed the number of migrants arriving during the day at more than 20,000, while Moroccan media raised the figure to more than 30,000.
The television channel Cuatro broadcasted the situation live and reported up to 200 people per minute crossing the border since 11 in the morning, Spanish time.
The ticket sales began early in the morning, intensified around 12:30 PM, and after a brief decrease, picked up dramatically starting at 3:30 PM, with no signs of letting up by 6:00 PM.
Among those who crossed were predominantly young men, but there were also entire families, women, small children, and unaccompanied minors as young as six years old.
According to EFE, many of the young people arrived in the Moroccan town of Castillejos by cars and motorcycles before heading en masse toward the border perimeter. "We're going to the fence, not by sea, to the border. Inshalla," shouted one of them.
The local medium El Faro of Ceuta described scenes of absolute chaos at the breakwater, with the Civil Guard trying to rescue people from the water as hundreds more arrived.
"It is an unstoppable movement. This can indeed be considered an invasion because they just keep coming in. It is even worse than during the May crisis," the outlet stated.
The crisis unfolded in a context of converging factors. In the ten days prior, between 1,500 and 2,000 people had already entered by swimming, overwhelming the available reception resources.
The Temporary Immigrant Stay Center (CETI), with a capacity of 512 places, had over a thousand occupants, with another thousand waiting outside. The shops in the city center closed their shutters.
The legal trigger was a ruling by the Supreme Court on June 29, which determined that "hot returns" cannot be applied to those who enter Ceuta or Melilla by swimming. The Ministry of the Interior reported that human trafficking networks "instrumentalized" this ruling to organize mass crossings.
The event also coincided with the Moroccan Throne Day, marking the 27th anniversary of King Mohamed VI's ascension to the throne, on which he pardoned 1,788 inmates. Moroccan media reported that the crossing was organized through WhatsApp groups and preceded by a digital mobilization campaign.
Witnesses and El Faro de Ceuta reported that Moroccan soldiers were actively encouraging young people to cross while the auxiliary forces withdrew in the face of the crowd.
The police union Jupol denounced the "absolute passivity of the Moroccan authorities," while the association Jucil criticized that "the Spanish authorities are keeping the soldiers confined to the barracks," leaving "the burden of containment almost exclusively on the shoulders of the Civil Guard."
The president of the Autonomous City, Juan Jesús Vivas, described the situation as an "absolute humanitarian and social emergency" and demanded that the central government declare a "national emergency" and establish a "single command." The Ministry of the Interior dismissed this request as it is not legally provided for in the case of migration crises.
Spain and Morocco reached an agreement to strengthen coordination and commit to the repatriation "as soon as possible" of all those who entered illegally. The Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, spoke multiple times by phone with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita to "address and resolve" the situation.
The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, is scheduled to travel to Ceuta this Friday to meet with local authorities and the commanders of the National Police and Civil Guard, while a column of five kilometers consisting of thousands of people continued to wait at the border by mid-afternoon.
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