A tense video shows a large group of migrants chanting “God is great” in Arabic as they confronted Spanish police in Ceuta, the Mediterranean enclave that has been at the center of a major border crisis after more than 60,000 people reportedly rushed toward the crossing.
Footage recorded Sunday showed migrants shouting “Allahu Akbar” while carrying a man who was said to have been injured during an encounter with police.
The crowd, including many people raising clenched fists, was seen moving through the streets of Ceuta, a Spanish territory on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast.
The unrest followed a massive surge Thursday, when tens of thousands of migrants swam from Morocco into the Spanish city, one of only two European land borders located on the African continent.
At least 72 people died, with fatalities attributed to drowning and to a stampede that unfolded on the beach.
The incident has alarmed European Union officials because migrants who enter Spanish territory could potentially move across the 29-country Schengen Area without visas or routine border checks.
In response, Italy suspended its Schengen arrangement with Spain for one month, while France increased inspections along its border.
The mass movement was reportedly fueled by viral social media posts in Morocco that falsely claimed migrants would receive Spanish citizenship upon arrival.
It also came after Spain’s leftist government announced a program allowing an estimated 500,00 undocumented migrants already living in Spain to obtain work permits between April and June this year.
Spain received more first-time asylum applications than any other European Union member in 2025, with 141,000, roughly 21% of the EU total, according to official figures.
The socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also issued the highest number of first residence permits of any EU state to non-EU citizens in 2024, according to official figures.
Spain issued more than 560,000 permits, representing 16% of total permits issued across the EU’s 29 member states, despite accounting for just 11% of the EU’s total population.
Despite many of the migrants being marched back into Morocco, terrified residents in Ceuta say many interlopers, mostly young men, are still in the city, using the streets as bathrooms, sleeping outside, and bathing in public fountains.
“It’s like an apocalypse. Waves of people everywhere,” one local business owner told RTVE.
Several locals also reported suffering attempted break-ins from migrants, and Spain’s government was forced to deploy hundreds of elite soldiers to retake the city.
Hundreds of migrants also tried to enter the Spanish territory of Melilla on the same day as hordes stormed Ceuta.
Some 49,000 illegal migrants voluntarily returned to Morocco, while others were sent to detention centers by the Spanish army.
The crisis has led other European nations to tighten immigration restrictions over fears of further attempted waves of migrants.
President Trump on Friday described the scenes in Ceuta as a “catastrophe,” as he warned that the US could see worse in the future under the Democrats.
“If we’re not in office, our country will be invaded at levels that made Spain look small time,” Trump told a Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, as he brought up his predecessor Joe Biden’s open-border policy.
“The biggest thing, the worst thing that Biden did is allowing 25 million people into our country, because many of those people are criminals. They’re murderers,” he said.
With Post wires.
