Migration crisis: over 100 estimated dead, washing up on the coast of Ceuta

Police estimate that around 73,500 migrants have left Ceuta for Morocco following the mass influx last Thursday, with the death toll rising daily. Officials estimate over 100 bodies have been found, including dozens which washed up on the coast. These figures could also include migrants who arrived in the days before the mass influx, as well as others who may have entered and left more than once.

Following the crisis, Spain's government rushed to install a new 1,640-foot floating barrier near its border with Morocco. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced Italy was restarting border checks on flights and ships arriving from Spain, despite Spain's membership in Europe's visa-free travel zone. Sanchez sent a letter to EU leaders criticizing the reaction, writing, "The European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarizing and unlawful reaction." EU offic

als said they would convene Sunday and Monday to discuss further responses to the crisis.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government is now split over who to blame for the crisis. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska defended Morocco, saying it was "no threat either to Ceuta or to the rest of Spain," and called it an "absolutely reliable partner." However, the Sumar party, a left-wing coalition partner, told the UN's special rapporteur on migrant rights that the scale of the crossings "does not appear consistent with ordinary migratory flows, and may be indicative of active facilitation on the part of Moroccan authorities."

The crisis has prompted a shift in rhetoric among Spain's right and far-right parties, with PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo and Vox leader Santiago Abascal largely exonerating Morocco and blaming Sanchez instead, a contrast with 2021, when then-PP leader Pablo Casado directly blamed Rabat for a similar crisis. Some Vox critics, including former party secretary general Javier Ortega Smith, have instead pointed to the US and Israel as being behind the crisis.

Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, wrote on X, "Spain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel, has declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis over its immigration policy. Maybe before it continues lecturing us, it's time it explained to the world why it still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa." Spanish Transportation Minister Oscar Puente referenced the post on X, writing, "Well, things are starting to get pretty clear," in an apparent suggestion of Israeli involvement in the crisis.

Oscar-winning Spanish actor Javier Bardem endorsed this conspiracy theory accusing Israel of being involved in the crisis. He reposted an Instagram post that said, "We don't know who engineered this crisis, but we know who benefits from a weakened, destabilised Spain: Israel, and the Western far right eager to turn migration into a weapon against Muslims." The posts cited a 2019 message from Yair Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister's son, who had sarcastically urged Arabs and Muslims seeking to "free occupied Arab Islamic lands" to begin with Ceuta and Melilla.