Ceuta: Spain scrambles after thousands breach exclave border

Ceuta: Spain scrambles after thousands breach exclave border July 31, 2026What you need to know - Ceuta says it cannot cope after estimated 60,000 people entered the city - Spain's Pedro Sanchez visits Ceuta, blames the influx on people smugglers manipulating a recent Supreme Court ruling - Spain's military sends personnel to assist Guardia Civil border police - France and Italy say they will temporarily tighten border controls at their frontiers to Spain - Germany's Merz calls on Morocco to take back the irregular migrants 'immediately' Follow this blog for continuing coverage and updates on the developing situation in Ceuta, Spain's North African territory. Tired of missing our real-time updates? Click here to add us as a Preferred Source on Google. Then tap the "Star" or "Preferred" to keep DW News at the top of your feed. Ceuta government head estimates that 60,000 people have entered The head of the regional government in the autonomous city, Juan Jesus Vivas, has told reporters that crowds equivalent to well over half of Ceuta's population have entered the city. "Estimates indicated that around 60,000 people have entered our city as a result of this event," he said. "This figure shows that it is impossible to absorb such pressure. It is absolutely impossible." Vivas had on Thursday called on Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to declare a national emergency and to deploy military troops to assist with securing the border, issuing this appeal at roughly the same time as much larger crowds started to circumvent the border checks. RECAP — Tens of thousands breach border after days of people swimming into territory You can catch up on our prior reporting on the issue this week here. Authorities in Ceuta first started to note an increased number of people trying to swim around the border controls and into the territory earlier this week. But at first people were only coming in comparatively small, reaching an estimated total of 1,500 to 2,000 by Thursday morning. On Thursday, Ceuta issued a public appeal for help from Spain. At around the same time, much larger crowds, now estimated to number in the tens of thousands, breached the border and overwhelmed border police. By Friday morning, Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was en route to the exclave of around 85,000 people. Security services estimated that almost 50,000 had gained entry to Ceuta in recent days. Welcome to our updates Hi, thanks for joining us as we continue to cover the developments in Spain's exclave of Ceuta bordering Morocco on the North African coast.