Ceuta newest: Trump lashes out over migrant ‘catastrophe’ as 60,000 cross into Spanish enclave

As 16-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El Abyad scrolled through Instagram videos showing migrants crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, he and his cousin, then still a 12-hour drive from the border, decided to try their luck.

“Migration is about improving our lives. We agreed we would try the idea of crossing and trust in Allah,” El Abyad told Reuters in Ceuta, after completing the journey by hitching rides with two drivers.

El Abyad was one of roughly 60,000 migrants who entered the Spanish territory of Ceuta from Morocco this week, in the biggest surge in recent history.

In Morocco, where deep-seated anger towards poor public services and rampant poverty spilled over late last year into major protests, many young people spend years waiting for a chance to cross the border in search of better prospects.

A quarter of Moroccans aged ⁠between 15 and 24 are not in education, employment or training, official data show.

When reports spread on social media about a Spanish Supreme Court ruling earlier in July that migrants intercepted at sea while trying to reach Ceuta or Melilla could not be immediately turned back, many saw an opportunity.

And calm seas at this time of year make swimming ⁠a more feasible option for migrants, said Mauricio Valiente, director of Spanish refugee charity CEAR.

“I came here to seek a better future,” said Dounia Kherradi, a waitress from Lqliaa, a centre of last year’s protests. “My salary is not enough to take care of my parents and I have a daughter… may God help us.”

Home affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft writes:

Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez described the inflow of people as “an attack on Spain’s territorial integrity” and promised to “use all the resources of the state to guarantee security and coexistence”.

Leaders across Europe, including president of the EU commission Ursula von der Leyen, have called for swift returns of migrants back to Morocco. UK prime minister Andy Burnham described the chaotic scenes of migrants scrambling onto the shores as a “cause for concern” and said the UK had contacted ⁠Madrid to understand the implications and ‌provide support.

Ceuta, which shares a land border with Morocco, is separated from mainland Spain by the Strait of Gibraltar. Though it is part of Spain it has a carve-out from the usual requirements of the Schengen free travel area – meaning it is not possible for migrants in Ceuta to simply sail across the Strait and be allowed into mainland Europe as they will face additional border checks.

Under normal circumstances, migrants who claim asylum in Ceuta should be able to have their claims processed, however the arrival of some 60,000 people at once threatens to overwhelm the system.

Italy is suspending the EU’s border-free Schengen arrangements with Spain in response to the mass influx of migrants into Ceuta.

Its interior ministry said on Friday that ​it ⁠had also agreed with Paris to strengthen controls along the Franco-Italian land border to try to prevent any undocumented migrants ⁠from crossing.

Italy does not share a land border with Spain but the measure – which looks certain to anger Madrid – will impact people travelling by plane or boat between the two countries, meaning they will need to show a passport to gain access.

Critics of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government dismissed the move as a symbolic gesture aimed at a domestic political audience, with no evidence that the migrants in Ceuta had any intention of heading to Italy.

Donald Trump – a long-time critic ​of Spain’s Socialist ⁠government – has also weighed in on the Ceuta situation.

“I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It was, it looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people,” he wrote, quoting different number to what the Spanish government has provided.

“And that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans … get elected. Except worse, much bigger, much easier to get into.”

The US president added: “And when I watched it, I said, boy, I said, … that’s going to be a talking point for the midterms, because when you look at what happened to Spain, they don’t know what to do.

“And it’s happening again today.”

Pedro Sanchez has hit back at EU members who have rallied against Spain, campaigning for its suspension from Schengen.

Calling for “respect for European treaties and data,” the Spanish prime minister pointed the finger at the number of irregular entries between 2021 and 2026, according to Frontex.

“This is not the time to divide. It is the time to continue building a strong and united EU,” he said.

Poland’s prime minister has urged Spain to tighten “asylum law, border procedures, and build effective barriers” if the Schengen zone is to survive.

In a post on X, Donald Tusk compared Spain’s migrant problem to Poland’s.

“Poland has tightened asylum laws, border procedures, and has built effective barriers on its border with Belarus, which is the eastern border of the EU,” he said.

“We have invested billions of euros and engaged thousands of soldiers, police officers and border guards.

“Spain must follow our example if Schengen is to survive.”

The Spanish government has revised the death toll and has confirmed that 57 people have died.

At least 14 more bodies have been recovered this afternoon.

Smugglers have been blamed for the Ceuta migration crisis, with Pedro Sanchez warning that they “deceive so many young people and ultimately lead many of them to their deaths.”

The Spanish prime minister said they had misinterpreted a recent ruling from the Supreme Court, which then triggered the mass surge.

“It appears that this interpretation of the Supreme Court’s ruling spread like wildfire over the past few hours through the networks of human trafficking organisations, triggering the kind of mass surge we witnessed yesterday,” Sánchez said.