EU Splits, Trump Weighs In as Ceuta Border Crisis Leaves72 Dead — Inside the City's Wildest 48 Hours

Spanish soldiers control as migrants cross back to Morocco after they crossed the border to enter Spain's north Africa's Ceuta enclave on July 31, 2026. Thousands of migrants crossed overnight from Morocco into Ceuta enclave, a police source said, as Spanish Prime Minister was set to arrive to manage the latest migrant crisis on the border. In recent days, a total of around 40,000 migrants have crossed into the territory, population 80,000, the source added. (Credit: Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP via Getty Images)

CEUTA, Spain — For roughly 48 hours in late July, Spain's North African outpost of Ceuta stopped functioning as a normal city. Somewhere between 50,000 and 75,000 people forced their way in from Morocco, swelling a territory of 84,000 residents by as much as two-thirds before most of them turned around and walked back out. What's left behind is a death toll still climbing more than a week later, a Spanish government fending off accusations it was warned in advance, and a European Union scrambling to look unified over a crisis that has already splintered it.

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