The president of Ceuta, Spain’s North African enclave, has accused Morocco of bearing responsibility for a mass border crossing that reportedly left more than 90 people dead, describing the incident as an “atrocity.”
Spanish authorities said approximately 69,500 migrants who entered Ceuta late last week had since returned to Morocco, while an estimated 2,500 people remained in the Spanish territory.
The unprecedented influx overwhelmed the city of about 84,000 residents, triggering a political crisis in Spain and prompting wider debate across the European Union over border security and migration policy.
Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas said the scale of the tragedy had deeply shocked the local community.
“It’s an atrocity. There are 88 bodies in the morgue, and there are more on the other side of the border,” Vivas said.
He added that many residents viewed the incident as more than a migration crisis.
“People see this not as a migration crisis; it was fundamentally an attack, a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity,” he told El País. “People felt that this, if not orchestrated, was at least encouraged or permitted by Morocco.”
Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles also called for a full investigation into the events, urging Moroccan authorities to establish exactly what happened.
“Neither Spain nor Morocco can look the other way when it comes to this tragedy,” Robles said. “I ask the Moroccan government to fully investigate what happened.”
The incident has intensified tensions between Spain and Morocco and sparked renewed calls for closer cooperation on border security and migration management, as authorities continue to assess the humanitarian impact of one of the deadliest border crossings in the region’s recent history.
