At least 100 people died during a massive wave of migrant crossings from Morocco into Ceuta, a small Spanish city on the coast of North Africa. Juan Jesús Vivas, Ceuta's top local official, shared this number with the European Parliament on 6 August 2026. He said between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants were still in the city, which normally has about 80,000 residents. Al Jazeera

The death toll has gone up steadily since the crossings took place. Reuters reported 57 bodies found on the Spanish side of the border on 31 July 2026, with possibly more deaths on the Moroccan side. By 2 August, the toll had reached at least 72. Vivas's testimony on 6 August brought the number to at least 100. Reuters Reuters

About 72,000 migrants swam or walked from Morocco into Ceuta on 30–31 July, according to Spanish authorities. Vivas told European lawmakers that this number was roughly equal to Ceuta's entire population. He called the crossings an "invasion." Most of the migrants later went back to Morocco, Reuters reported. Some said hunger and hostility drove them to return, while others stayed determined to remain. Reuters

To understand why this matters, it helps to know what Ceuta is. Ceuta is a small piece of Spain located on the coast of Morocco, in North Africa. Even though it is physically attached to Morocco, it belongs to Spain and is part of the European Union. For migrants trying to reach Europe from Africa, getting into Ceuta means reaching European soil. The Schengen zone, mentioned below, is a group of European countries that have agreed to remove passport checks between them. Protecting the outer edges of this zone, including Ceuta, is essential to keeping that system working.

Vivas said Ceuta's two shelters, one for adults and one for children traveling alone, had "collapsed" under the pressure. He said officials could not give an exact count of how many migrants were still in the city because they lacked the resources. He also said local leaders had warned Spain's national government in Madrid that crossing numbers were rising before the surge, but the warnings were not acted on. He added that Moroccan authorities had refused to communicate with Ceuta throughout the crisis.

Morocco denied responsibility for the surge on 3 August 2026. Morocco argued that Spain should have seen this coming because of a court ruling. Spain's Supreme Court had ruled that migrants who arrive by swimming cannot be immediately sent back if they did not cross a physical border barrier, like a fence or wall. Because Ceuta's border with Morocco includes a stretch of water with no physical barrier, migrants who swim across fall into a legal gray area. Vivas had already proposed on 29 July studying the creation of a single command center to manage Ceuta's migration crisis. Ceuta.es

Spain's national government chose not to attend the 6 August hearing in the European Parliament. The European Commission, which is the EU's executive body, attended instead. EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner told the hearing that Spain had promised the crisis would not affect the Schengen passport-free travel zone. But he also warned that Europe's border security depends too much on the cooperation of a single neighbouring country, meaning Morocco.

Vivas told lawmakers that security forces had still not been sent to Ceuta "with the required intensity." He again called for the immediate deportation of migrants who entered without permission. He noted that children traveling alone can only be returned if they agree, and that local authorities did not know whether any previously expelled extremists were among the new arrivals.

The pressures on Ceuta were visible long before the July surge. In November 2024, Vivas described the situation for unaccompanied migrant children in the enclave as "unsustainable," with shelters at 500% overcapacity. He reported at the time that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was receptive to addressing Ceuta's challenges. Ceuta.es By May 2026, Vivas was still defending "a growing Ceuta with an encouraging future ahead" during the Debate on the State of the City. Ceuta.es Spain's Interior Ministry has long described Ceuta and another enclave, Melilla, as the main entry points to the EU for irregular migration from Africa. Spain's national plan for carrying out the EU migration pact also identifies a high level of irregular arrivals by sea, concentrated in the Canary Islands and at land borders. Interior Ministry Interior Ministry

The broader context here is that several problems stacked on top of each other at once. A court ruling limited Spain's ability to quickly deport migrants at a border with no physical barrier. The relationship between Spain and Morocco means border control can be used as a bargaining tool. A city of 85,000 people received arrivals on a scale that no local government could handle. And the EU's own structures showed a gap, with the Commission showing up to a hearing in place of the member state most directly affected. Brunner's warning about relying too much on one neighbour's cooperation points to a weakness that existed before this crisis and will likely continue after it. Vivas's claim that local warnings were ignored and security forces were not deployed enough, if accurate, suggests a breakdown in coordination between local and national authorities that the Supreme Court ruling made worse.

Sending migrants back is especially difficult. The court ruling about swimmers who cross no physical barrier makes quick deportation legally complicated. The rule that unaccompanied children must consent before being returned creates a group of arrivals that is very hard to remove. With 3,000 to 5,000 people still in the enclave and shelters collapsed, the gap between what the law allows and what is actually possible on the ground is wide and getting wider.