‘The guards just opened the door’: what happened in Ceuta?
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How did over 70,000 migrants manage to cross into Ceuta in a single night?
This is The Guardian.
Today, in the aftermath on the ground in Ceuta. The images were just extraordinary. The numbers, I couldn't wrap my head around them. Last Thursday, people began swimming from Morocco to the city of Ceuta. By now, you'll probably know it's a territory in North Africa that's been part of Spain since the 1600s. Thousands, tens of thousands were pictured in the sea, some with floats and life jackets, most with little more than what they were wearing. By Friday, an estimated 72,000 migrants had crossed over. Sliding down concrete barriers and swimming the five minutes around a jetty to make it. Youssef, a father of four, was one of them.
He says he saw the news circulating on social media, that the border from Morocco to Spain was open.
Hundreds of Facebook pages declared that if you wanted to emigrate, now was the time.
Yousef is a computer engineer.
He says he was deported from Spain several years ago, but his wife and daughters still live there. He is desperate to return to Bilbao, to the life that he'd built there for 14 years with his family.
I want to go back and complete my life with you. All this journey and adventure... To complete it.
With no food, water or money, 70,000 of the people who came en masse last week have now left. An estimated 72 people died in horrific circumstances. Older bodies floating in the water, being pulled out by the young. But across Europe, a humanitarian crisis has become a political firestorm, with leaders demanding that Spain be frozen out of free movement between EU countries.
Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney temporarily ousting Spain from the Schengen Agreement, which guarantees the free movement of people within Europe's borders.
From The Guardian, I'm Nosheen Iqbal. Today in Focus, what happens after Ceuta?
Javier Jennings-Mozo, welcome to Today in Focus.
Thank you so much for having me.
You're an audiovisual journalist and you've been in Ceuta since last Saturday. Ceuta is located in North Africa on the northern coast of Morocco, about 12 miles from Spain with a population of around 80,000 people.
What motivated migrants like Youssef to risk the dangerous crossing?
What can you tell me about the culture and how people see themselves?
Quite interesting actually. Of the culture, I'd say it's very particular to Ceuta. So you would have an obvious influence of both countries, be it Morocco and Spain. I'd say... 60 to 70% of the population here are Muslims. However, they are Spanish. They do not feel Moroccan. They feel they're from Ceuta specifically. When you talk to them, they tell you we're Spanish Muslims. And it's quite interesting because due to its geographic location, this city has always had a bit of a military culture and heritage in which most of the people that live here actually are members of the military or of the Guardia Civil or Policía Nacional. So I think this influence of the military culture and the military heritage sort of makes people drawn towards a right wing ideology.
You know, they're all very proud of symbols of the Spanish flag, of the unity of Spain, of Spanish nationalism.
One of the people that we talk to is Malika.
She's a woman from Ceuta in her 50s. She's very proud of being from Ceuta and of this military heritage. She's very proud that her grandfather fought, you know, and helped defend the Spanish borders as a soldier with the Franco regime.
And then that her father also was in the military.
But then she verbally expressed that we are not racist here in Ceuta.
Okay.
And in Ceuta, you will hear the people telling you, Ceuta is united, and this is what we are. We are military families that defend the Spanish borders, but we are Muslims.
Javier, from all the interviews you've done and the conversations you've been having in Ceuta in the last week, what have people told you about why they made this crossing?
I think there's a lot of, not misunderstanding, but lack of nuance in terms of how we look at this generally. When it comes down to the migrants, which is who are the people that were the main focus of our story, this changes a lot.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did over 70,000 migrants manage to cross into Ceuta in a single night?
0:00–3:25
2
What motivated migrants like Youssef to risk the dangerous crossing?
3:25–6:09
3
How did Spanish authorities initially treat the arriving migrants?
6:09–9:39
4
What tensions arose between locals and the sudden influx of migrants?
9:39–13:18
5
Why do some analysts blame Morocco for opening the border?
13:18–16:17
6
How is Russia alleged to have amplified the Ceuta crisis on social media?
16:17–20:15
7
What were the EU’s political reactions and policy proposals after Ceuta?
20:15–23:24
8
Will the Ceuta event trigger a long‑term rethink of Europe’s migration strategy?
23:24–26:07
Speakers
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