What 72,000 Bodies at a Fence Revealed about Africa and Europe

Spanish police escorting out migrants in Ceuta, Spain on 20 August, 2026. —Marcos Moreno-Europa Press via Getty Images Europe and Africa are at once impossibly close and worlds apart near the northern tip of Morocco.

Ceuta and Melilla are two small cities overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and a short ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain.

The cities on the African mainland have been controlled by Spain for centuries, and their residents are Spanish citizens who enjoy the privilege of European Union membership.

A border fence and a stark disparity in wealth and opportunity separate the two enclaves from Morocco: Ceuta lies a few miles from the adjoining town of Fnideq, and Melilla is 10-minute drive from Beninsar.

In late July and early August, an estimated 72,000 people from Morocco—including many minors —walked, swam and ran toward Ceuta.

Some made their way to Melilla, hoping the same rare fortune would await them there.

Most carried nothing but a phone in a plastic holster and even lost their shoes to the waves, that later deposited them along the shore.

The people who made the hragga —colloquial for irregular migration—were driven by a combination of calculation and desperation.

There were roughly three categories of people.

Those who had tried before and had come prepared.

There were those who had not been planning but had come to believe through a combination of online misinformation and unverified rumors, that a genuine window of opportunity to make it to Spain had opened and could close at any moment if they hesitated.

And there were still others who embraced a daredevil approach with a combination of optimism and pessimism: “Why not? I have nothing to lose.” Many weighed the risks, reasoning that even a beating would be worth spending a day in Ceuta, which they are normally forbidden from entering.

Struggling to find food or shelter, most were either expelled by Spanish authorities or returned to Morocco voluntarily.

Videos circulated online showing men kicked by the Spanish Guardia Civil while being expelled, then hit with batons by the Moroccan Gendarmerie on the other side of the border, in a choreography of rejection.