Migrant deaths in Ceuta rise to 72 after border surge from Morocco

Five more bodies have been found along Ceuta’s coastline as the enclave recovers from unprecedented border influx.

At least 72 people have died after around 60,000 migrants surged across the border from Morocco into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta over the past few days.

Five more bodies were found along Ceuta’s coastline on Sunday as Spanish authorities said more than 1,000 people had been treated by health services since the surge began on Thursday.

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While more than 48,000 of those who crossed had returned to Morocco within 48 hours, the crisis has prompted 22 European Union member states to call for coordinated border action, Italy to suspend passport-free Schengen travel with Spain and Spanish authorities to install a floating barrier off Ceuta’s coast.

The situation in the city had improved markedly by Sunday, but more had to be done to re-establish normality, the Spanish government representative in Ceuta, Miguel Angel Perez, told reporters and confirmed the death toll.

The Spanish news agency EFE reported that the death toll is expected to increase.

The Spanish Civil Guard has begun the process of identifying the 72 bodies already found.

The collection of fingerprints and DNA samples will be completed by the end of next week at the latest, said Carlos Atuchi, an official with the Civil Guard’s forensic science department.

Some of the migrants who died drowned, while others were crushed while trying to climb a breakwater and border fence.

Morocco’s Interior ⁠Ministry ⁠said on Sunday that the mass crossings ⁠were fuelled by misinformation on social media, human trafficking networks and misinterpretation ‌of a Spanish ruling banning immediate returns of migrants intercepted at sea.

It confirmed 11 people died, ⁠mostly by ⁠drowning while crossing, noting that it was fact-checking ‌reports on deaths from the other side of ‌the ‌border.

Ceuta’s leader, Juan ⁠⁠Jesus Vivas, earlier told the El Pais newspaper that the city’s morgue had received 88 corpses. They included some who had died in earlier, smaller attempts to reach the territory ⁠⁠in hazardous night-time swims over the past two weeks.

He said Moroccan authorities ⁠⁠were also recovering bodies from the sea, but no official information was available.

“Virtually all those who entered Ceuta have now returned to Morocco,” Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, wrote on X late on Friday.

Spanish soldiers with migrants in Ceuta [File: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters]

“It pains me deeply that young people are dying at sea. It’s not right that, in the year 2026, women with children as young as two months old should be ⁠⁠crossing the sea only to die,” said Karima Abenaz in Ceuta.

The French national, who has family in Morocco, added: “In Morocco, there’s food, there’s everything we need. If we don’t have a decent job, we should go on strike and demand our rights from the government. We shouldn’t be dying at sea, it’s not right”.

Ceuta, together with Melilla – another autonomous ‌‌Spanish city in North Africa – represents the EU’s only land border with Africa.

Both cities often experience surges in attempted crossings by people seeking to migrate to Europe.

To reach Ceuta, migrants often swim about 5km (3 miles) from the Moroccan town of Fnideq to reach Spanish territory. Others attempt from the nearby town of Belyounech, where the distance is shorter.

Authorities have reinforced police and army patrols and on Saturday installed a 500m (1,600-foot) floating barrier off Ceuta.

Spain has adopted a more open stance on migrants than most other EU countries, introducing a programme to grant residency to more than half a ‌‌million ‌‌undocumented people.

It has rejected suggestions that the scheme encouraged the rush into Ceuta, saying that those who entered Ceuta irregularly could not travel on to mainland Spain or elsewhere in the Schengen zone.