Spain will send troops to Ceuta to help with border security
Authorities in the Spanish city of Ceuta asked Madrid to declare a national emergency and send military assistance. Crowds of people breached the border of
Authorities in the Spanish city of Ceuta asked Madrid to declare a national emergency and send military assistance. Crowds of people breached the border of the territory next to Morocco as police lost control. Officials in the Spanish territory of Ceuta on the northwestern tip of Africa on Thursday asked the government in Madrid to declare a national emergency and send the army to help secure its border with Morocco. The call came as video footage showed crowds of people trying to walk around the breakwaters separating Moroccan and Spanish territory or otherwise scale the border fence. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged an "immediate response." Spain's Interior Ministry said later on Thursday that its armed forces would send personnel to Ceuta to support the border guards. "The Armed Forces will reinforce the Guardia Civil in the exercise of its powers and any others that may be necessary to maintain civil security in the city of Ceuta," the ministry said. Large groups were approaching from the nearby Moroccon town of Fnideq, although it wasn't clear why so many sought to enter specifically on Thursday Image: REUTERS What had happened in Ceuta during the day? The Guardia Civil said that crowds broke through the fences into Spain after overwhelming police at the city's breakwater. Video footage showed hundreds swimming across from the Moroccan side, using inflatable inner tubes and other flotation aids. "The situation is absolute chaos," Rachid Sbihi, head of the association that represents Spain's Guardia Civil in Ceuta, told the Associated Press.
"It's not possible to give precise numbers but there are thousands of migrants crossing," he said, adding that the border had "totally collapsed." The scenes were reminiscent of a similar flashpoint at the border crossing in May of 2021 when more than 8,000 people entered the territory in just two days. In recent days, rescue parties had already noted increased numbers of people trying to swim around the border checks. An official from Spain's Guardia Civil policing the border described the situation as 'absolute chaos' Image: Atlas/REUTERS What did the regional government say? Juan Jesus Vivas, head of the Ceuta regional government, called for the Spanish government in Madrid to declare an emergency on grounds of national security, asking for more police and for the army to be deployed on the border. This followed a meeting of the city's board of spokespeople, who reached a unanimous agreement. "Yesterday, I spoke out to warn of the extreme gravity of the migration crisis we are enduring," Vivas wrote online. "Today, mere hours later, the situation is even more critical: another night of mass arrivals, nearly a thousand people waiting outside the CETI [Temporary Migrant Reception Center], our reseources completely overwhelmed, and another life lost at sea." The head of the regional government said its migrant reception center known as CETI had nearly a thousand people waiting outside. Here you see a much smaller crowd outside the facility on Sunday. [FILE: July 26, 2026.] Image: Antonio Sempere/JNA Press/Sipa USA/picture alliance He said that the small city was facing "a humanitarian and social emergency" of national proportions.
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