Tensions in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta boiled over after residents dismantled and set fire to improvised migrant shelters, following a large-scale arrival of people from neighboring Morocco. The unrest came as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez alleged that disinformation amplified by Russian and Israeli-linked networks helped inflame the crisis.
According to Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE and the EFE news agency, protesters waving Spanish flags headed toward migrant encampments near the shoreline last week, tearing down temporary structures and lighting fires while police worked to separate residents from migrants. EFE reported on Aug. 27 that the crowd shouted “Invasores, expulsión” — “Invaders, expulsion” — as it moved toward the beaches where many migrants had been sleeping.
The following day, hundreds more residents gathered again and marched in the direction of the Trampolín and Benítez beach zones, where migrant camps had formed, repeating the same expulsion chant, EFE said.
The clashes followed an extraordinary spike in crossings on July 30 and 31, when more than 72,000 migrants entered Ceuta irregularly from Morocco, marking a major flashpoint at one of the European Union’s two land borders with Africa. Ceuta officials cited by Reuters on Aug. 31 said at least 100 people died while trying to make the crossing. By Monday, about 5,000 migrants were still in the enclave.
Police stand nearby as smoke and flames rise from a migrant camp being destroyed by residents near the beach in Ceuta, Spain, on August 27, 2026, in a screen grab from handout video. (FORTA/Handout via Reuters)
On Monday, Sánchez tied the sudden mass movement of migrants to what he characterized as a foreign-backed online disinformation operation.
Spanish officials have said deceptive videos and social media posts shared on platforms including Instagram and TikTok wrongly claimed that migrants reaching Ceuta by sea would be allowed to stay in Spain, a message authorities say encouraged more people to attempt the journey.
Law enforcement officers look on as protesters carry Spanish flags during the destruction of a migrant camp near the beach in Ceuta, Spain, on August 27, 2026, in a screen grab from handout video. (FORTA/Handout via Reuters)
Sánchez told radio station SER that research by the European Union’s diplomatic service, the European External Action Service, indicated Russian and Israeli networks had participated in spreading the disinformation alongside far-right networks, Reuters reported Aug. 31.
He argued that Russia and Israel had seized on the crisis to attack Madrid because of disagreements with his government over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
However, Sánchez provided no further details about the evidence supporting the accusation, according to the reports.
Both governments rejected his claims.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Sánchez of “lying shamelessly” and said in a post on X that the Spanish leader was attempting to divert attention from domestic policy failures.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov separately rejected Spain’s accusation that Russia was connected to the Ceuta migration crisis.
Sánchez also rejected allegations that Morocco’s government deliberately facilitated the border surge, telling SER, “When people talk and speculate about the participation of Moroccan authorities, I deny this outright,” according to Reuters. Spanish opposition parties and some human-rights organizations have accused Rabat of allowing the crossings, an allegation Morocco denies.
Workers carry the body of a migrant who died while trying to cross into Ceuta at the city’s Muslim cemetery in Ceuta, Spain, August 21, 2026. (Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters)
The disinformation surrounding the Ceuta crossing had been building well before Sánchez publicly accused Russian and Israeli-linked networks. News Outlet reported Aug. 4 that an open-source investigation by Golden Owl Intelligence traced weeks of activity across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp that circulated misleading interpretations of Spanish immigration law, along with information about routes, meeting points and recommended crossing times.
The campaign intensified after Spain’s Supreme Court issued a July 8 ruling restricting the immediate return of migrants intercepted at sea near Ceuta and Melilla. Simplified accounts of the ruling, combined with confusion over Spain’s separate plan to regularize hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, were circulated online as evidence that migrants reaching Spanish territory would be allowed to stay.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called the U.S. conflict with Iran “reckless” and “unjust.” (Yves Herman/Reuters)
Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, said at the time that Islamist movements were also seeking to exploit the crisis politically. Riboua argued that Islamist voices in Morocco and Spain were amplifying the unrest and portraying Europe as an attractive destination while using Morocco’s ties with Israel and the U.S. to attack the Moroccan government. In a July 31 analysis, Riboua wrote that Islamist activists had spent years encouraging young Moroccans to believe their country offered them little future and depicting Europe as a place where prosperity and opportunity were easily available.
The crisis has also spread beyond Spain. Italy on Monday extended for another 15 days its suspension of Schengen free-movement arrangements with Spain, a step first imposed July 31 in response to the mass influx into Ceuta.
Moroccan security forces clash with migrants attempting to cross into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta near the town of Fnideq, on the Morocco-Spain border, on July 31, 2026. (Abdel Majid Bziouat / AFP via Getty Images)
Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, warned News Outlet at the outset of the crisis that Ceuta could become “a key turning point in the unraveling of the European Union.” “Once you unravel Schengen — which I think is inevitable — this breaks down the entire European project,” Gardiner said.
Reuters contributed to this story.
