The Central Government has decided to bring in 60 soldiers to back up the Guardia Civil in the Spanish, North African enclave-town of Ceuta.

This back-up is needed because the Guardia Civil cannot cope with the flood of immigrants entering illegally by simply swimming around the border fence. Some estimates put the influx at as many as 20,000 this year.

The PM of this semi-automous, enclave city, Juan Jesús Vivas (PP), wants Madrid to declare that situation as a National Emergency, which Madrid is reluctant to do, but has instead sent elements of the Spanish Army.

In the meantime, Brussels has offered financial and operational support through the EU’s Frontex. There is a growing suspicion that Morocco has not done much to prevent this “invasion.” The fact is that according to the authorities in Ceuta, there had been 800 assailants on the frontier during Wednesday alone.

Yesterday morning around eleven, thousands of people began to gather on the Moroccan side of the border, which at this point is a groyne (Tarajal breakwater, visible in the top of the photo) topped with a high fence stretching out into the sea.

According to the Guardia Civil, a “human avalanche” began with streams of immigrants heading into the city once they had swum around the border fence and forcing their way through the police cordon that officers of the Riot Unit had deployed along the border.

Swimming around is also hazardous because the bodies of eleven people have been washed up on the beach, bringing the total for 2026 so far, up to nearly 40.

The Spanish Government is already dealing with one National Emergency (where the Ministry of the Interior takes charge) because of the wildfires in Madrid and Ávila.

The immigrant holding centres in Ceuta are swamped and unable to cope because of over 1,500 arrivals in the last nine days.

Editorial comment: the truth is that these Spanish enclave towns are a tremendous liability as far as illegal immigration goes, because if people cross from Morocco (may coming from as far as Equatorial Africa and not only the Magreb) they have effectively entered the EU; Europe, not just Spain.

Both conservative and socialist governments have tried ‘devolución en caliente,’ which involves rounding them straight up and shoving them back through the border gates but humanitarian organisations oppose this and the practice was taken before the Supreme Court and banned.

The Spanish right wing will gnash their teeth but the only way to prevent this is to hand Ceuta and Melilla back to Morocco, much the same as the UK handed back Hong Kong. Anybody holding a Spanish passport and resident there should receive ample compensation and given the choice of becoming Moroccan or moving back to the mainland. That is what happened, after all, when Spain handed back their North African possessions to Morocco in the 50s, although no compensation was involved.

(News: Ceuta)

Keywords: Human Avalanche, Ceuta Border, Tarajal breakwater, immigrant Holding Centre, Spanish Army, Guardia Civil, National Emergency

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