Migration from Africa, the Middle East, and other poor and unstable regions of the world with growing populations to a wealthy and aging Europe is an enormous challenge. The open-door policy has always been a mistake, and good intentions have collided with realistic consequences: polarization, lack of integration, and rising xenophobic sentiment and support for the far right. These are the consequences, whether anyone likes it or not.
It's therefore understandable that the governments of many EU states, seeing the assault by 60,000 people—mostly very young men—on Ceuta and then Melilla, focused on the issue of the migration threat.
Criticism of Spain's migration policy was also not unfounded. What is difficult to understand, however, is the total blindness to the assault on Spain's territorial integrity—specifically, the undermining of Spanish sovereignty over these territories.
The attack on Ceuta and Melilla was not a spontaneous action by desperate people, but a hybrid operation bearing some resemblance to what happened on our border with Belarus in 2021. The essential difference, however, is that in Ceuta's case, much suggests that the influx of migrants itself was merely a cover for other activities—namely, an attempt to undermine Spanish sovereignty over its North African exclaves. And in this regard, Morocco's operation continues at full pace, with no reaction visible from anyone (aside from the Spanish media).
Several months before the attack on Ceuta, a campaign had already begun to internationalize the alleged "problem" of these exclaves, which influential pro-Israeli American analysts, some Israeli media, and opinion-shaping circles in Morocco began referring to as "occupied territories" or "colonies."
Of course, Moroccan claims to these territories are nothing new, but such an intensity and internationalization of anti-Spanish propaganda on this issue has never existed before. And these claims are entirely baseless.
It's worth recalling that these cities were founded by the Phoenicians, who have nothing in common with the Arab-Berber Moroccans. Later they were ruled by the Romans, the Germanic Vandals, and finally the Visigoths. For several thousand years, the Mediterranean Sea was not a border between continents but a connector—one civilization existed on both its shores. In 710, an Arab invasion destroyed the Visigothic Kingdom, but one aristocrat named Pelayo held out in Asturias. His kingdom gave rise to Spain and to the Reconquista—the process of driving the invaders from the conquered territory. Ceuta and Melilla were seized as part of that Arab invasion, and were recovered in the early 15th century as part of the Reconquista. This, therefore, had nothing to do with colonialism.
In March 2026, the well-known neoconservative expert and commentator Michael Rubin published an article on the website of the American Enterprise Institute (one of the leading American think tanks) titled "Morocco Should Send a New Green March to Ceuta and Melilla." This was a reference to the events of 1975, when Morocco, in violation of international law and against the will of the residents of Western Sahara, seized that territory using a migratory stream of 350,000 Moroccans (unarmed civilians).
Meanwhile, in April of this year, the leading Israeli news portal Ynetnews published an article by Moroccan writer Amnie Ayoub calling on Israel to support Moroccan claims to Ceuta and Melilla, as well as to exert diplomatic pressure on the US to support Morocco in this regard as well.
These are just two examples of such activities, but there are many more. This campaign naturally intensified with the influx of migrants, and Morocco saw that this was effective pressure on Europe. Most of the migrants may have left Ceuta, but the EU did not utter a single word of criticism toward the North African kingdom.
This is an incentive to intensify pressure to create a "Ceuta problem." And indeed, the noise in the media, particularly online, has not subsided. Both trolls and established commentators are taking part in it. Israeli politicians and diplomats have also spoken up, naturally siding with Moroccan claims.
If I called for the secession of some US territory, I probably wouldn't be allowed into that country. Not to mention Morocco or Israel, where you can get banned from entry for far less criticism. So why can't the European Union create a blacklist of key figures involved in undermining the territorial integrity of member states and ban them from entering the Schengen Area? Regardless of whether it concerns Ceuta or, for instance, Estonia's Narva or Latvia's Latgale. This is what European solidarity should be based on. It's also worth remembering that if the "Ceuta problem" is successfully internationalized, Russia will exploit Spanish frustration over it and deepen divisions within Europe. Not only actions have consequences—so do failures to act.
Witold Repetowicz
Witold Repetowicz. Photo: PR24/AK
The author is a journalist and Middle East expert who has reported from Syria and Iraq and written books on conflicts in the region. He lectures at the War Studies University in Warsaw.