Residents in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta tore down and burned makeshift migrant shelters amidst escalating tensions over a massive influx from neighboring Morocco. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has accused Russian and Israeli-linked networks of spreading disinformation that he claims fueled the crisis.
Demonstrators carrying Spanish flags moved toward beachside migrant camps last week, destroying shelters and setting fires as police attempted to keep protesters and migrants apart. Protesters chanted "Invaders, expulsion" as they advanced toward the beaches where migrants have been staying, according to reports from Spain's public broadcaster RTVE and news agency EFE. Hundreds of residents returned to the streets the following day, marching toward the Trampolín and Benítez beach areas and repeating the same chant.
The unrest follows an unprecedented surge on July 30 and 31, when more than 72,000 migrants irregularly crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, one of the European Union’s two land borders with Africa. At least 100 people died attempting the crossing, according to Ceuta authorities cited by Reuters. Roughly 5,000 migrants remained in the enclave as of Monday.
Sánchez stated that research by the European Union’s diplomatic service, the European External Action Service, indicated Russian and Israeli networks had participated in spreading the disinformation alongside far-right networks. He argued that Russia and Israel had seized on the crisis to attack Madrid due to disagreements with his government over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. However, Sánchez provided no further details or evidence supporting his accusations. Both the Russian and Israeli governments rejected his claims. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Sánchez of "lying shamelessly" and stated the Spanish leader was attempting to divert attention from domestic policy failures. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov separately rejected Spain’s accusation that Russia was connected to the Ceuta migration crisis.
Sánchez also rejected allegations that Morocco’s government deliberately facilitated the border surge, stating, "When people talk and speculate about the participation of Moroccan authorities, I deny this outright." Spanish opposition parties and some human-rights organizations have accused Rabat of allowing the crossings, an allegation Morocco denies.
The disinformation surrounding the Ceuta crossing had been building prior to Sánchez's accusations. An open-source investigation traced weeks of activity across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp that circulated misleading interpretations of Spanish immigration law, along with information about routes, meeting points, and recommended crossing times. This campaign intensified after Spain’s Supreme Court issued a ruling restricting the immediate return of migrants intercepted at sea near Ceuta and Melilla. Simplified accounts of the ruling, combined with confusion over Spain’s separate plan to regularize hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, were circulated online as evidence that migrants reaching Spanish territory would be allowed to stay.
Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, noted that Islamist movements also sought to exploit the crisis politically. Riboua argued that Islamist voices in Morocco and Spain were amplifying the unrest, portraying Europe as an attractive destination while using Morocco’s ties with Israel and the U.S. to attack the Moroccan government. Islamist activists had reportedly spent years encouraging young Moroccans to believe their country offered them little future and depicting Europe as a place of easily available prosperity and opportunity.
The crisis has also had broader repercussions, with Italy extending its suspension of Schengen free-movement arrangements with Spain for another 15 days, a measure first imposed in response to the mass influx into Ceuta. Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, warned at the outset of the crisis that Ceuta could become "a key turning point in the unraveling of the European Union," stating, "Once you unravel Schengen — which I think is inevitable — this breaks down the entire European project."
