Spain installs floating barrier in Ceuta after deadly influx of migrants
Members of Spain’s Guardia Civil USECIC tactical reserve unit block migrants who crossed the border from Morocco on Tarajal beach in Ceuta, Spain, on July 31, 2026 (Getty Images)
Spain on Aug. 1 installed a 500-meter-long (1,600-foot) barrier on the sea border between its North African territory of Ceuta and neighboring Morocco after tens of thousands of migrants breached the frontier earlier in the week.
At least 67 migrants died, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, the Spanish government said on Aug. 1. The sudden arrival of 50,000 to 60,000 migrants in the territory between July 30 and 31 sparked a humanitarian crisis and reignited the immigration debate in Europe and beyond, though most of the migrants soon went back.
Critics of Spain’s socialist government, notably right and far-right politicians, seized upon the dramatic images of crowds storming into Ceuta, which sits on the Strait of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea and has been a Spanish possession since 1580.
