{"id":73981,"date":"2026-08-21T20:48:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T20:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/73981\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T20:48:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T20:48:42","slug":"spain-arrests-smugglers-helping-migrants-from-ceuta-to-mainland-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/73981\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain arrests smugglers helping migrants from Ceuta to mainland Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spanish police have arrested five people accused of charging migrants thousands of pounds to take them from Ceuta to mainland Spain.<\/p>\n

An estimated 72,000 people<\/a> crossed the border between Morocco and Spain’s tiny north African exclave on July 30. Most were returned, but there are still about 8,000 people<\/a> living in migrant centres or sleeping rough.<\/p>\n

The influx caused an multinational diplomatic row<\/a>, with EU allies criticising Spain over its lax migration policy.<\/p>\n

Two days after the incursion, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, Spain’s prime minister, insisted that no migrants could get to the Spanish mainland, which is part of the Schengen area<\/a>, because they would have to undergo document checks.<\/p>\n

However, Spanish police admitted that some migrants have already been smuggled from Ceuta into Europe.<\/p>\n

\"Around<\/p>\n

Around 1,800 migrants are sleeping rough on Trampolin Beach while the Spanish authorities work to increase temporary accommodation – REDUAN\/EPA\/Shutterstock\/Shutterstock Editorial<\/p>\n

The five alleged traffickers charged migrants up to \u00a37,700 per person to transport them by boat from Ceuta to the Iberian Peninsula, police said on Friday.<\/p>\n

Four of those arrested belonged to a trafficking network that housed migrants in homes or garages in Ceuta, before taking them across the Strait of Gibraltar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Boat drivers were selected for their experience navigating fast, and their ability to take evasive manoeuvres and dodge police checks,” Spain’s national police said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The number of migrants who made the journey with the alleged traffickers was not disclosed.<\/p>\n

Two suspects were detained in Ceuta and two in La L\u00ednea de la Concepci\u00f3n, a Spanish border town north of Gibraltar.<\/p>\n

Credit: Anadolu via Reuters<\/p>\n

A fifth suspect was jailed pending trial for allegedly charging seven migrants \u20ac8,000 (\u00a36,800) each to transport them in a small boat lacking “minimal safety standards” on the night of Aug 14, police said.<\/p>\n

Spain’s Civil Guard said on Thursday that another two men had been arrested in the past week for allegedly smuggling at least a dozen migrants from Ceuta to the Spanish Peninsula.<\/p>\n

Tourists fled when a motor launch carrying 62 migrants<\/a> landed on a secluded beach on Wednesday near La Manga sports club on the Costa C\u00e1lida in Murcia.<\/p>\n

All the migrants are thought to have been arrested by police and transferred to immigration centres.<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanish police have arrested five people accused of charging migrants thousands of pounds to take them from Ceuta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3299,6253,20512,3593,26856,28512,17,13479],"class_list":["post-73981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-ceuta","tag-iberian-peninsula","tag-mainland-spain","tag-migrants","tag-police-checks","tag-sleeping-rough","tag-spain","tag-spanish-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}