{"id":576440,"date":"2026-07-31T02:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T02:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/576440\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T02:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T02:00:12","slug":"spain-sends-extra-troops-to-ceuta-after-thousands-of-people-swim-into-territory-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/576440\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain sends extra troops to Ceuta after thousands of people swim into territory \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Spanish<\/a> government is deploying extra troops and police officers to its north African enclave of Ceuta after thousands of people swam and waded into the tiny territory from neighbouring Morocco<\/a> in a matter of hours. <\/p>\n

Videos shot at Tarajal beach on Thursday showed crowds of people walking around the breakwaters and running on the beach and roads.<\/p>\n

Most appeared to be young men, but there were also families with women and children. \u201cViva Espa\u00f1a!\u201d some shouted to a freelance photographer working for the Associated Press, who was filming the scene.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Guardia Civil force, which polices Spain\u2019s borders, said \u2060the migrants<\/a> were \u201cmassively entering from the sea\u201d through the Tarajal breakwater but could not provide an estimate of the numbers.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s national broadcaster, TVE, reported that between 2,000 and 3,000 people had crossed into Ceuta, while the state news agency, Efe, said some had entered the territory by scaling the high border fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is absolute chaos,\u201d said Rachid Sbihi, the head of the association that represents Guardia Civil officers in Ceuta. \u201cIt\u2019s not possible to give precise numbers, but there are thousands of migrants crossing.\u201d He added that the border had \u201ctotally collapsed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MigrantsMigrants reaching the shore of Ceuta. Photograph: Luc\u00eda Diaz\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Agence France-Presse quoted a government spokesperson as saying that nine bodies had been recovered.<\/p>\n

Achraf Maimouni, a member of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, described the situation as \u201cexceptional\u201d. He said the Tarajal border had been opened \u201cunder unusual circumstances\u201d on Thursday morning and people had crossed over.<\/p>\n

Juan Jes\u00fas Vivas, the president of Ceuta, demanded the deployment of additional police and troops \u201cto guarantee the inviolability of the frontier\u201d and citizens\u2019 safety. He also called on the central government to declare a national emergency over the crossings.<\/p>\n

Vivas had said on Wednesday that migrant reception centres were overwhelmed, with hundreds of people sleeping on the streets. He said Ceuta needed \u201cmore resources, more infrastructure, more regulation and effective co-ordination between all the administrations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not looking for privileges; we\u2019re looking for a fair and responsible solution in line with our reality,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, Spain\u2019s interior ministry announced that 60 members of the armed forces would be deployed to Ceuta, along with an additional 30 Guardia Civil officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe armed forces will reinforce the Guardia Civil in the exercise of its powers and any others that may be necessary to maintain security in the city of Ceuta,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n

But it rejected calls for the declaration of a national emergency, saying such emergencies could not be declared over migration issues, and could only be declared in response to dire meteorological events \u2013 such as the current wildfires \u2013 or in the face of a volcanic or nuclear threat.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a>, is due to travel to Ceuta on Friday with the interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez said his government would provide \u201can immediate response\u201d to the situation in Ceuta, which echoes the border crisis in 2021 when more than 8,000 people arrived in just two days.<\/p>\n

\"MigrantsMigrants swim in the sea to reach a beach in Ceuta. Photograph: Luc\u00eda Diaz\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re mobilising all necessary resources, working with Moroccan and international authorities, and preparing the necessary measures to restore normality as soon as possible,\u201d he said in a post on X. \u201cI just conveyed this to President Vivas. This is the moment to build solutions, with responsibility and co-operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

This month \u200bSpain\u2019s supreme court ruled that migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta \u2013 or Spain\u2019s other north African territory of Melilla \u2013 could not be summarily returned under the enclaves\u2019 special border rejection regime.<\/p>\n

The Guardia Civil spokesperson told Reuters: \u201cIt has been a slow trickle since the supreme court\u2019s ruling, but today has been an explosion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberto N\u00fa\u00f1ez Feij\u00f3o, the leader of the conservative opposition People\u2019s party, to which Vivas belongs, said the situation was desperate. \u201cThe government can\u2019t look the other way,\u201d he added, \u201cbecause we are facing a national security crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santiago Abascal, who leads the far-right Vox party, described the incident as an \u201cinvasion\u201d and said those crossing into Ceuta were not fleeing war or poverty but had been summoned by S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government to ensure he could remain in power.<\/p>\n

Moroccan government sources attributed the surge to \u201ccriminal organisations\u201d and said its co-operation with Spain remained \u201cexemplary\u201d.<\/p>\n

The mass crossing into Ceuta in May 2021 came amid heightened tensions between Madrid and Rabat over Spain\u2019s decision to allow a Western Sahara independence leader to be treated for Covid-19 in Spain. Speaking at the time, S\u00e1nchez hinted at a link between the sudden relaxing of border controls and the diplomatic tensions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the president of Spain, I believe firmly that Morocco is a partner country, it\u2019s a country that is a friend of Spain and it should continue this way,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be effective, this co-operation needs to always be based on respect. Respect for mutual borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceuta and Melilla make up the European Union\u2019s only land border with Africa. Both cities periodically experience crowds of would-be migrants attempting to enter to reach Europe. \u2013 The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spanish government is deploying extra troops and police officers to its north African enclave of Ceuta after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,1629,34147,30898,43,32238,2846,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-576440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-immigration","tag-migrant-crisis","tag-morocco","tag-news","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-spain","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}