Spain sends in army after 49,000 migrants storm across border with Morocco in a single day - as 18 die during attempt
Video footage showed the migrants, mostly young men, swimming or floating on inner tubes from the Moroccan side, and others breaking through a gate on land and running into the city
Nearly 49,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in the space of just one day, as they rushed by sea and land from Morocco.
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Spain deployed military units to Ceuta in North Africa as migrants surged by sea and land into the territory - one of only three land borders with Europe on the African continent.
Video footage showed thousands of migrants, mostly young men, swimming or floating on inner tubes from the Moroccan side, and others breaking through a gate on land and running into the city.
Spain’s interior ministry said today that it estimated 49,000 migrants had arrived in the outpost, which has a population of around 84,000 people.
Hundreds of people climbed barbed wire fences which were not being guarded by police at the time.
In Fnideq, a Moroccan town just beyond the Ceuta border, Moroccan authorities aimed water cannons at migrants very late Thursday in an attempt to deter them from crossing.
"It was very tough. The police tried to stop us. But our will and determination allowed us to come here," migrant Jadid Zacaria, his hair and shirt still wet from the ocean, said in an interview in Ceuta on Thursday afternoon as migrants streamed through a border gate nearby.
Some of the migrants shouted, "Long live Spain" as they entered the territory.
Nine corpses were found in Ceuta on Thursday, local authorities said, rising the number of people who died on trying to enter the Spanish enclave to 18. 60 migrants have died attempting to cross into the territory in recent months.
In Melilla, Spain's second autonomous city in northern Africa, footage from local media and human rights organisations appeared to show clashes at the Beni Ansar border point late Thursday.
That has been the only open crossing between Morocco and Melilla for the past six years.
According to Omar Naji of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, at least three vehicles were set ablaze and injuries were reported among migrants and security forces.
This comes as pain's Socialist government stands out in Europe for its pro-migrant stance, and it has recently launched a programme to provide legal status for some 500,000 undocumented migrants, triggering an influx of applications double that number.
Nigel Farage took to social media to respond to the viral footage.
"It's time to wake up everybody," he said.
My response to viral footage from the Moroccan border.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) July 30, 2026
It’s time to wake up everybody. pic.twitter.com/V4EtxT6vBe
Morocco's Interior Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
The government said 200 specialised police officers and 60 troops arrived from the Spanish mainland to reinforce Ceuta's regular forces. It was unclear whether reinforcements were being sent to Melilla, and authorities were not immediately available for comment.
Die spanische Exklave Ceuta wird derzeit überrannt: Bereits mehr als 1.500 Migranten, vorwiegend aus Marokko und Algerien, gelangten in kürzester Zeit in die EU. Ihr Ziel dürfte mutmaßlich Deutschland sein. Grenzen müssen jetzt geschlossen und Abweisungen rigoros durchgesetzt… pic.twitter.com/hW7RtKi2OE
— Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) July 30, 2026
On a highway 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Ceuta in Morocco, Reuters witnesses saw groups of young people walking north in hopes of reaching Spanish territory.
The scene was reminiscent of 2021, when some 10,000 people from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa, many of them minors, entered Ceuta, an enclave of 85,000 people.
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will travel to Ceuta on Friday with Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska for meetings with security forces and local authorities, his office said.
Many shops in Ceuta were shuttered on Thursday.
Enrique Serrano, who runs a women's clothing store, said business owners were organising self-defence because they believed police resources would be insufficient.
"I'm not opening this afternoon because the situation is extremely tense ... The first thing I have to do is protect my business and my family," he said, adding that hundreds of migrants rushed through the border fence in a matter of minutes during the early hours of Thursday.
Ceuta and Melilla have the European Union's only land borders with Africa. Both cities periodically experience surges in attempted crossings by migrants seeking to reach Europe.
Right-wing parties criticised the drive, arguing it would attract more migrants to Spain, and were quick to blame Sanchez for allowing the situation in Ceuta to reach crisis proportions.