What if I told you Ceuta is an occupation, not migration crisis?

The sudden migration of around 60,000 people, mostly Moroccans, into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta played perfectly into the far-right’s anti-immigration and Islamophobic rhetoric.

Videos went viral showing thousands of mostly Moroccan migrants swimming and clambering up rocks to enter Ceuta in the hope of finding a better future. These videos were paired with bold captions claiming an “invasion” was happening and that this was what they had been warning us about.

Tragically, at least 72 people died making the journey, with many still missing. The crisis unfolded on King Mohammed VI’s 27th Throne Day anniversary on 30 July. As many as 50,000 people were believed to have crossed in 24 hours.

Since then, mass military operations have been underway to stop the numbers from rising and to regain control of the border. By Friday evening, the Spanish government announced that at least 48,000 of the 60,000 people had returned to Morocco.

Convenient omissions

Before last week, many would never have heard of Ceuta or been able to point it out on a map.

Ceuta, or Sebta as it is referred to by Moroccans, is located in North Africa and has been occupied by Spain since 1580. Melilla is another Spanish-occupied territory situated further east of Ceuta.

This important piece of the puzzle has been conveniently missed off the far-right’s rhetoric in its scaremongering tactics, while falsely broadcasting that “Spain is being invaded.”

A relentless pattern in immigration-related news reared its ugly head, where the blame is quickly slapped on immigrants. But these are the people who are risking everything to make it across a border. This ignorant and dangerous rhetoric avoids placing the blame on the country’s leadership, who have the resources to make the changes needed.

It is clear from the pictures and videos that many of those crossing were young, which is not surprising when over 50% of the country is under 35. The same generation that took to the streets last year to protest for better healthcare and education in the Gen Z movement in 2025.

These young people orchestrated weeks of nationwide, mostly peaceful protests and asked for basic rights after eight women, within weeks, died after receiving caesareans from the same hospital. In response, they were met with violence and oppression.

Young Moroccans took the risk to make demands and saw no change. Now, almost one year on from that historic youth-led movement, those same young people are being demonised for fleeing a country that they feel is not listening, not supporting, or caring for its people.

Refugees are not ‘invaders’

Sadly, countries that are quick to latch onto anti-immigration rhetoric and Islamophobia converted the videos of the border crossing into their own policy propaganda. Using provocative language and imagery to turn vulnerable human beings into an abstract security threat.

For example, one video that was published included the headline: ‘Morocco Arab refugees invade Spain’. Sneaking the word “Arab” into the headline is no accident; it is playing on Islamophobia, which prefers to wrongly discriminate and bracket all male Arabs as terrorists, rapists, and murderers.

The title itself is hugely contradictory, as refugees do not “invade.” Invade is a military-associated word, deliberately used to insinuate risk of violence. Whereas those crossing into Ceuta were civilians, clearly attempting to migrate without any possessions on them.

What far-right media neglected to show was the young boys crying on the phones that passersby lent them, telling their mum that they made it alive.

By deliberately refocusing the rhetoric, the extreme right is successfully dehumanising people. Propaganda at this level risks translating into physical violence, which tragically was the case in Ceuta, where migrants were seen beaten in the streets by locals.

Brutal and deadly force by Moroccan and Spanish authorities was also captured, as well as further dehumanising, cruel behaviour. One video showed groups of migrants crying out for water as the military stood and watched with their own bottles of water in hand.

Schengen shutdown a knee-jerk reaction

As always, the far-right tactics and obsession with immigration triggered impulsive government actions, with Italy moving to suspend the Schengen zone with Spain.

A move that was clearly not conducted on genuine risk management, as Ceuta is not connected to mainland Spain, and even if it were, all immigrants would have to pass through border control to have their identity and visa verified.

A point that Spanish Foreign Minister José Albares reiterated in a post on X, saying: "the integrity of the Schengen Area is absolutely guaranteed,” accusing those suggesting otherwise of creating "deliberate confusion.”

Despite the situation on the ground now being under control, EU members have allowed panic to take over their policy and fracture the bloc’s unity. On Saturday, 22 of the EU’s 27 members demanded the bloc’s interior ministers have a video meeting “as a matter of urgency.”

The EU’s knee-jerk response calls into question the bloc's true unity when its instinctual reaction is scapegoating. A more unified approach would look like offering structural support, or confronting systemic issues that cause people to flee their country and risk their lives in the first place.

The underlying tragedy of this event is that it shows nothing has been learned from this or previous immigration-related crises.

Leaders continue to ignore young people and deny their basic rights and chance of a better life. The media continues to demonise vulnerable people and governments assume tighter borders are the solution, even though that’s never worked before.

Above all, the greatest error that costs nothing is the failure to treat people like human beings when they are going through the most traumatic event of their lives.

Olivia Hooper is a British journalist based in Morocco specialising in humanitarian and gender-based topics, writing for Middle East Eye and Al-Monitor, among others.

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.