Spain to send troops after hundreds of migrants flood into Ceuta exclave from Morocco

This video grab shows migrants reaching the shore of Spanish north African exclave of Ceuta, after swimming around the border fence between Morocco and Spain, in Ceuta on July 30, 2026. Hundreds of migrants converged on Morocco's northern town of Fnideq on July 30 evening, following rumours that the border with Spain's Ceuta had opened. Photo by Lucía DIAZ/AFP via Getty Images

Article content

Madrid said on Thursday it would despatch soldiers to Ceuta to ensure security after hundreds of migrants entered Spain’s north African exclave from neighbouring Morocco and hundreds more headed there.

Article content

The Spanish government’s delegation in the enclave told AFP that the bodies of nine migrants who died while trying to reach Ceuta by swimming had been recovered.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Migration from Morocco into Spain’s two north African territories, Ceuta and Melilla, has long been a politically sensitive issue between the two countries, as thousands cross the border at times.

Article content

Article content

Italy called on Thursday for Spain to be suspended from Europe’s open-borders Schengen zone, prompting a backlash from Spain, which summoned the Italian envoy to Madrid.

Article content

AFP reporters saw a stream of adults and children, most of them soaked, entering the town of Ceuta after having swum there. Discarded flotation rings and clothes were discarded on the shore near where the border barrier meets the sea.

Article content

“The armed forces will reinforce the Civil Guard in the exercise of its powers and any others that may be necessary to maintain security in the city of Ceuta,” Spain’s interior ministry said.

Article content

It did not specify how many soldiers would be sent to the small territory of 18.5 square kilometres (seven square miles) but said the Civil Guard’s strength there would be nearly doubled from the current level of 80.

Article content

It will also send diving teams and coastguard ships.

Article content

People gather at Bab Sebta, on the Morocco-Spain border near Spain’s enclave of Ceuta and the Moroccan town of Fnideq, on July 30, 2026. Photo by Abdelmajid BZIOUAT/AFP via Getty Images

Article content

Italy said on Thursday Spain should be suspended from the Schengen zone — a system of open borders spanning 29 European countries that have officially abolished controls at their common borders.

Article content

Article content

“I am in favour of closing the Schengen area with Spain,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X.

Article content

“Irregular and uncontrolled immigration poses a danger to national security,” he claimed.

Article content

“The images coming from Ceuta show how the Madrid government’s decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to over 500,000 irregular immigrants is profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking,” he argued.

Article content

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Luis Albares responded by accusing Tajani of weaponizing immigration for political ends.

Article content

He said such remarks were “improper” for “a partner and friendly country from which we expect European solidarity and not partisan demagoguery.”

Article content

The Spanish leader of Ceuta, Juan Vivas, said on Wednesday that 1,500 migrants had come to the enclave by sea in the past few days.

Article content

“There is no more room for anyone,” he told Spanish television.

Article content

People gather on a hilltop near Bab Sebta on the Morocco-Spain border, near Spain’s enclave of Ceuta and the Moroccan town of Fnideq on July 30, 2026. Photo by Abdelmajid BZIOUAT/AFP via Getty Images

Article content

On the Moroccan side of the border, an AFP reporter saw hundreds of people including children gathered on Thursday evening near the border between Ceuta and the local town of Fnideq, waiting to cross into the Spanish territory.