Umaima Elazizi was at home in Tangier when she saw the posts on social media.
Young Moroccans such as her were flashing V-signs for the camera after swimming to Spain. All you needed was a wetsuit and flippers, some posted. Spain had relaxed control of the border, others claimed. The 21-year-old had dreamed of living in Europe since she was a girl, but it had never looked so easy to get there – maybe even fun.
“Why not go?” Elazizi said to herself. “Why should I stay here?”
In Morocco, she faced a struggle to find work after training as a nurse. Even if she got a job, the pay would hardly be worth it, she thought. Two days later, Elazizi caught a taxi with three friends and joined a rush on one of Europe’s only land borders with Africa.
Ayyoub Sarhani was at work in Tangier when he opened Facebook on 30 July and saw posts claiming that the frontier with Spain was open. It was payday but the 21-year-old electrician skipped off without collecting his wages. “I didn’t think twice,” he told The Observer.
Sarhani had tried to reach Ceuta before. Once, when he was 17, he had made it, only to be sent back to Morocco. Another time, the Spanish civil guard had intercepted him. Here was a fresh chance for a better future – and Sarhani wasn’t going to miss it.
Saleh Bakour was asleep when a relative called at 6am on 30 July to tell him the border was open. The 15-year-old left without telling his parents and caught a bus from his home town of Bab Berred to the coast. From there, he walked the remaining 20 miles (33km) to the border. Others came from Fez, Casablanca and Khenifra, converging on a small town near the border with the tiny Spanish exclave of Ceuta.
Footage of the surge of 70,000 people swarming over the border spread like wildfire on social media, igniting a political firestorm across Europe that has been eagerly weaponised by the political right. The apparent ease with which online disinformation triggered an unprecedented mass migration on this scale has fuelled political tensions and stirred fears of a repeat.
The commotion, as thousands of Moroccans arrived at the border with Ceuta, reached two Sudanese men hiding in the forests above nearby Fnideq. “We heard the Moroccans shouting,” says 29-year-old Abdelsalam Abdullah.
The two friends had already made several attempts to scale the barrier along the border with Ceuta; another obstacle in a gruelling four-year journey that had taken them through Chad, Libya and Algeria. Each time, they were caught and dumped in the desert back near Algeria. Now they hurried down to the water. “We saw them jumping in the sea and we followed them,” says Abdullah.
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The influx overwhelmed Ceuta and its population of just 84,000, exposing deep divisions between governments in Europe.
The surge unfolded within hours, but had been brewing for weeks, since Spain’s supreme court ruled on 8 July that anyone who tried to swim to Ceuta could not immediately be pushed back to Morocco. News of the ruling spread quickly on social media – and was immediately distorted. Anyone who made it to Ceuta by sea was now entitled to stay, it was falsely claimed.
By mid-July, Moroccans across the country were mobilising on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Discord and X. On Facebook groups, users posted maps, instructions for crossing, and recommended equipment, racking up millions of views. Tips were swapped on WhatsApp groups and other messaging platforms.
Along the five-mile border with Morocco, troops with the Spanish civil guard were feeling the pressure. The number of people attempting to scale the fence or swim to Ceuta typically increases in summer, but this was different.
As the flow increased, the president of Ceuta contacted the office of Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez. Over the previous week, 1,500 people had entered the territory, which measures just over 7 sq miles (18.5 sq km). On the previous day alone, 500 people had crossed. At this rate, Ceuta would soon be overwhelmed, Juan Jesús Vivas warned Sánchez’s chief of staff on 27 July. In a conversation with the interior ministry the next day, Vivas urged the government to declare a state of emergency in Ceuta. That was legally impossible, the interior ministry informed him on 29 July.
“The government knew that a migration crisis could erupt at any moment, yet it trusted – like a meek little lamb – that Morocco would act as a loyal partner,” said Javier Celaya, a People’s party (PP) MP for Ceuta.
When he began to receive images of people crossing in droves, Celaya immediately shared them with fellow MPs. Then he drove to the border. The scene stunned him. “I saw a human river,” he said.
There was nothing the civil guards could do to stop it, but where was the army?
‘The government knew a migration crisis could erupt any moment but it trusted – like a meek little lamb – that Morocco would act as a loyal partner’‘The government knew a migration crisis could erupt any moment but it trusted – like a meek little lamb – that Morocco would act as a loyal partner’
Javier Celaya, People’s party
It was not the first time something like this had happened: in May 2021, about 8,000 people flooded into Ceuta after Morocco relaxed border controls during a diplomatic row with Spain. Relations between Madrid and Rabat have improved since then, but it was hard to believe that in 2026 so many Moroccans could gather in one place without the knowledge of the authorities.
Influencers with tens of thousands of followers posted clips of themselves on TikTok swimming across, inspiring others to come.
It was evening when Elazizi reached the border. As she ran towards the water, a Moroccan border guard grabbed her by the wrist. She flung herself into the sea to break his grip. After about 20 minutes she reached dry land with nothing but her phone in a waterproof case. “I was happy, of course,” she says.
Others described bumping into bodies and struggling to keep their heads above water as weaker swimmers clung on to them. More than 80 people drowned.
They had made it, but there was nowhere to go. Fearful residents had shut up shop and retreated into their homes. In the streets there was chaos. Some local people armed themselves with baseball bats and broomsticks for self-defence. Others hid migrants in their homes as the army was deployed to reverse the tide.
Hamza al-Saadouni, a 17-year-old from Fez, said a woman had hidden a group of men including his elder brother in a garage but neighbours told the authorities and they were driven out. By the following day, most of the migrants had been pushed back over the border, driven out by a mixture of hunger, thirst and force.
A 12-year-old boy who crossed unaccompanied into Ceuta begs a soldier not to return him to Morocco on 3 August
The political crisis was only just beginning for Sánchez, who has made powerful enemies among conservative governments in Europe, the US and Israel.
Visiting Ceuta, the prime minister described the events as an attack on Spain’s territorial integrity, but many European allies turned on him, revealing deep divisions between rightwing and leftwing governments across the continent.
Italy blamed his centre-left government’s open migration policies for attracting migrants and suspended free movement with Spain. As rifts deepen across Europe, Sánchez’s government hit back on Friday, announcing that it would “reinstate border controls” on visitors from Italy.
The Trump administration, which has blamed unchecked immigration for Europe’s “civilisational decline” in recent months, seized on the scenes in Ceuta with glee. The US president has called for Spain to be thrown out of Nato after a standoff over defence spending and the Iran War, and the White House was swift to blame Sánchez’s “far-left globalist policies” for the chaos at the border.
“It’s terrible. Remember that picture. That’s going to be us in three years if the wrong side gets in,” Trump told Fox News. “If the Democrats get in, you will not live a very good life.”
There was little criticism of Morocco, a US ally, which blamed “malicious exploitation of the digital space” and misleading information.
Spain’s intelligence services found that Rabat did not orchestrate the surge, as it had in 2021, but nor did Moroccan forces seek to prevent it. As Morocco celebrated the 27th anniversary of King Mohammed VI’s accession to the throne, surveillance along the border was reduced to a minimum and eventually lifted entirely, the Spanish daily El País reported.
Spain’s inability to protect the border has raised questions about its sovereignty over Ceuta and another exclave, which are both claimed by Morocco.
“What began as a migration crisis has ultimately been instrumentalised by the Moroccan government to challenge Spain,” Celaya said. “Spain has suffered a hybrid attack.”
The next threat came from the Spanish mainland. Eager to capitalise on the turmoil, far-right politicians flocked to Ceuta vowing to reconquer the city, which has a mixed population of Muslims and Christians.
Members of Spain’s neo-Nazi National Nucleus disembarked at the port wearing matching black T-shirts with the group’s white emblem. They were not welcome. Far-right Spanish politician and European parliament member Alvise Pérez was forced to take refuge in a cafe. Outside, hostile local people banged on the window shouting “racist”.
“This is an absolute disgrace,” Pérez said in a video filmed inside the police van that escorted him back to the port.
Other rightwing politicians and activists from across Europe and beyond seized the opportunity to whip up their own followers. Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, posted a video falsely claiming that Moroccans who had made it into Ceuta were already on their way to Britain. His party colleague Robert Jenrick said: “Ceuta is our future if we don’t secure our border.” Alice Weidel, co-leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), declared that “Germany is the likely destination” for the migrants entering Ceuta.
The crisis received blanket coverage in the US. In a video purporting to show “the truth” from Ceuta, conservative influencer Nick Shirley filmed himself running away from people he claimed were migrants throwing rocks at him. The post has 12 million views on X.
An analysis last week by 411, a counter-disinformation group, found that far-right social media posts during the crisis were amplified and spread by accounts with links to the Russian military.
Days after the surge, residents thronged the streets of Ceuta for the annual procession of their patron saint. Local dignitaries and a band followed a 15th-century wooden statue of the Virgin of Africa down a palm-lined promenade beside the harbour.
Residents of Ceuta credit the Virgin of Africa with shielding them from the plague in 1651, and now they invoked her protection against the perils circling their city. “In these days of uncertainty, pain and concern… we lift our eyes to the mother who never abandons her children,” said the bishop Ramón Valdivia, the Spanish mainland visible in the distance. He prayed for unity and for the souls of the 88 people who died attempting to swim to Ceuta. There were cries of “Long Live Ceuta! Long Live Spain!”
For several hours, it felt as if residents had got their city back. Then the worries returned.
“The question we keep asking ourselves is: will it happen again?” Vivas said in an interview with Spain’s public broadcaster.
Some residents expressed fears that if Fifa chose Spain to host the 2030 World Cup instead of Morocco, there would be another surge. Others said they felt abandoned by the Spanish government and worried that Madrid could simply hand Ceuta to Morocco. “I think everyone has a plan B,” said a resident called Patricia.
The number of migrants who remain in Ceuta is unknown. The Spanish authorities say there are about 2,000, but it could be three times that many, according to Vivas, including hundreds of unaccompanied children. All of them must be returned to Morocco, he said, warning of risks to public order and security.
In the city centre, young Moroccan men wandered the streets carrying their belongings in plastic bags. Some posed for photographs in front of a bronze statue of Hercules, a Spanish flag tied around his neck like a scarf. All are waiting to see what Spain will do.
Outside one centre for migrants, Elazizi was sitting on a blanket by the side of the road with others from Afghanistan and Eritrea. One of her friends had decided to return to Morocco and now regretted it, she said. She has always imagined herself in Germany because she studied the language, but will settle for Spain if she can get to the mainland. “Morocco is not my place,” she said, sunglasses pushed back on her head and toenails painted dark red.
Calls are already circulating on Facebook for another run on the border on 15 August. In some groups, there are posts selling wetsuits and flippers alongside pleas for information about people who went missing on 30 July.
Spain deployed a floating barrier to close the legal loophole exposed by the supreme court’s ruling, but many question whether it will be enough.
In the meantime, some are still trying. On 7 August, a week after the surge, a man attempted to cross the border with a paraglider and fell into the sea. By the time the Spanish civil guard got there, the man, who appeared to be from sub-Saharan Africa, had drowned.
Photographs by Iván Zambrano / Europa Press via Avalon, Bernat Armangue, Antonio Sempere/AP