Ceuta is a tinderbox

Ceuta remains a flashpoint nearly nine weeks after tens of thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco into Spain’s small North African enclave. While most returned quickly to Morocco, Spain and local authorities still can’t determine a reliable count of how many remain. Madrid previously said only about 5,000 stayed, but government sources now acknowledge roughly 20,000 after July 30, with Minister Ángel Víctor Torres putting the figure at around 18,000. Police recently found a previously unknown settlement in old military tunnels and identified more than a hundred unaccompanied young migrants sleeping rough near the abandoned Guano industrial site. Officials estimate at least 600 unaccompanied children remain. Spain, which initially defended absorbing arrivals as “the most humanitarian decision,” now wants to speed up returns via emergency legislation, though border monitoring groups dispute some return numbers.