Two weeks after tens of thousands of migrants and refugees crossed into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, local businesses say the tourists have disappeared. Café owner Abdul says he is struggling to pay his staff.
August is normally the busiest tourist month of the year in Ceuta, with full hotels and crowded streets. That changed after more than 70,000 refugees and migrants reached the exclave in late July, DR reports.
The streets are still busy, but not with the usual visitors. Several shops and restaurants have closed, and residents told DR that they stay indoors in the evenings because they feel unsafe.
Abdul, who owns a café in the city, said there are zero tourists this year, while Americans normally book tables all day during the summer. He told DR that the situation has left him unable to pay wages, and that he is considering selling the business and moving to Malaga.
Official figures and remaining arrivals
According to Euronews, Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said around 72,000 people entered Ceuta irregularly in the last week of July 2026. He said about 70,000 had already returned to Morocco. Reuters reported that EU interior ministers were told roughly 75 migrants died during the crossings.
BBC News reported that Ceuta’s leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, put the number of migrants still in the territory at between 3,000 and 5,000. Reuters has described the enclave’s reception centres for adults and minors as collapsed under the pressure. Around 85,000 people live in Ceuta, per DR.
Thousands of those who arrived have been sent back to Morocco. The situation is different for people from countries marked by war and persecution, as returning them would conflict with the principle of non-refoulement. Neither Morocco nor Spain will house them, leaving them stranded in Ceuta for now.
Aid organizations have criticized Spain for failing to treat the migrants with dignity, DR reports. The Red Cross and Save the Children are among the groups present in the city, assisting those who remain.
Why the crossings happened
The mass crossing followed false claims spread on social media that the border to Ceuta, and thereby to Europe, was open. Similar misinformation about weakened European border controls has circulated again in recent days, according to DR. Extra police officers and additional border checks have been deployed in the area.
The fact-checking outlet Maldita.es documented Facebook groups claiming Spain was receiving migrants with specific skills, and noted that the interior minister rejected those claims. Al Jazeera reported that the surge prompted an emergency EU meeting on August 4, 2026.
