Italy announced it had suspended its Schengen agreement with Spain allowing for visa-free movement between borders.<\/p>\n
\t Italian officials said the suspension would take effect on Saturday and last for one month.<\/p>\n Several European countries suggested Spain\u2019s membership in the Schengen free movement zone should be suspended, though Spain\u2019s foreign minister said the integrity of the zone was \u201cguaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n Across the Atlantic, US President Donald Trump led right-wing efforts to seize on the crossing to advance hardline immigration policies.<\/p>\n \u2018Trafficking mafias\u2019<\/p>\n Madrid rushed troops, more police, drones, divers and boats to the outpost that it has run for centuries as Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez and his interior minister visited on Friday.<\/p>\n Overnight into Saturday, AFP journalists observed groups of young people wandering the beaches and streets of Ceuta. Dozens of men slept on the sand.<\/p>\n \t There was a massive police and military presence in the area, and some young people were seen turning back, saying \u201cadios\u201d or \u201cgoodbye\u201d to officers before crossing over the border to Morocco.<\/p>\n Inside the city, shops were closed, and annual fiestas were cancelled.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s catastrophic,\u201d said Mohammed, a local taxi driver and Ceuta resident.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, we sympathize with them \u2014 they\u2019re having a terrible time in their own country, and all that \u2014 but this isn\u2019t the way to enter a place, nor is it a way to live.\u201d<\/p>\n Previous migrant surges have occurred during tensions between Spain and Morocco.<\/p>\n Sanchez visited Algiers on July 20 \u2014 the first such visit by a Spanish head of government in four years \u2014 marking a thaw in relations with Morocco\u2019s rival Algeria.<\/p>\n \t But it was not clear if there was any connection between that visit and this latest influx.<\/p>\n In Ceuta, S\u00e1nchez blamed the surge on people-traffickers spreading rumors about a Spanish Supreme Court ruling this month that irregular migrants arriving by sea could not be immediately returned.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat has emerged from our talks with Moroccan authorities is that trafficking mafias took a self-serving interpretation of a Supreme Court ruling,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Diplomatic fallout<\/p>\n Fears of the crowds entering EU member states sparked diplomatic fallout.<\/p>\n EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called the scenes at Ceuta \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot allow anyone to come to our (European) Union without abiding by our rules,\u201d she said on social media.<\/p>\n Finland and Denmark on Friday backed Italy\u2019s moves, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz demanded Morocco \u201ctake back illegal migrants immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n \t France and Britain said they stood ready to help Spain with the sudden surge, even as France tightened border checks.<\/p>\n Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said he was considering reinforcing border checks but saw no need to suspend Spain from the Schengen zone.<\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, warned: \u201cIt looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people, and that same thing\u2019s going to happen to us if the Republicans don\u2019t get elected, except worse, much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n Spain\u2019s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares tried to allay fears, saying it was \u201cnot possible to travel from Ceuta and Melilla to the Peninsula without identifying oneself at a police checkpoint,\u201d referring to Spain\u2019s two North African enclaves.<\/p>\n \u201cEnough of this deliberate confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n \t Successive crises<\/p>\n Ceuta, a territory of 18.5 square kilometres (seven square miles), and the nearby enclave of Melilla are Europe\u2019s only two land borders with Africa.<\/p>\n Morocco\u2019s authorities have not yet issued an official statement on the flow of migrants.<\/p>\n During a similar surge in 2021, more than 10,000 migrants reached Ceuta from neighboring Morocco over the course of two days during a diplomatic spat between the two countries.<\/p>\n The row erupted after Spain decided to host for medical treatment a leader of the Polisario Front, whose guerrillas fought a long war with Rabat over the independence of the Western Sahara region.<\/p>\n The crisis ended in 2022 when Madrid reversed its long-standing policy of neutrality and backed Morocco\u2019s plan for Western Sahara \u2014 a move that had caused a diplomatic rift between Madrid and Algiers.<\/p>\n Reuters contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tA migrant runs from Spanish police officers as they cordon off access to the beach for people crossing from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo\/Antonio Sempere)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AFP__20260731__C3NZ7P7__v1__HighRes__SpainMoroccoMigrationCeuta-e1785568997116-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tSpain\u2019s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, and Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska, right, walk by the Tarajal border fence between Spain\u2019s north Africa\u2019s Ceuta enclave and Morocco during a visit to manage one of the largest migrant crises on the country\u2019s border as thousands of migrants crossed overnight from Morocco, July 31, 2026. (Jorge Guerrero\/AFP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26213267697424-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tSpanish army soldiers and Guardia Civil officers stand guard as migrants return to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, August 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Antonio Sempere)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26212401626051-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA member of Moroccan security forces stands guard as people attempt to cross from the Moroccan northern town of Fnideq to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26212660852783-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tMigrants rest after crossing from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo\/Antonio Sempere)<\/p>\n
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