A BESIEGED SPANISH CITY: CEUTA

 On 30 and 31 July 2026, the Spanish city of Ceuta was overwhelmed by the sudden and unprecedented arrival of more than 70,000 migrants from Morocco. Most have since returned, but thousands remain in the city, placing enormous pressure on its already limited resources and public services. The Spanish Government itself has acknowledged that the crisis has affected the normal functioning of public services, including social services, healthcare, the protection of minors, transport and public security.

Ceuta has a population of barely 83,000. For more than a month, its inhabitants have had to endure the consequences of an extraordinary situation which has disrupted their ordinary lives and generated widespread anxiety about security, public order and the provision of essential services. Local authorities have repeatedly complained that they have been left without the resources necessary to cope with the scale of the crisis.

Whatever one's views on immigration, the first duty of any government must be to protect its citizens and to preserve the normal functioning of the territory for which it is responsible. Ceuta is not an abstraction or a bargaining chip in somebody else's political game. It is a Spanish city, with Spanish citizens who have the same right to security, liberty and public services as citizens anywhere else in Spain.

Today, 2 September, is the National Day of the Autonomous City of Ceuta. Across Spain, citizens are gathering in support of Ceuta and its inhabitants, demanding that the city recover its normality and that the integrity of Spanish territory be defended.

I add my voice to theirs.

Ceuta has been Spanish for centuries—long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic and America entered European history. Its people should not have to ask for the protection and solidarity of their fellow Spaniards. They should be able to take them for granted.