Spain’s mass border breach fuels anti-migrant backlash

Summary

Podcast Summary: Front Burner — “Spain’s Mass Border Breach Fuels Anti-Migrant Backlash” (August 6, 2026)

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode explores the unprecedented mass breach of Spain’s North African border at Ceuta by 72,000 migrants, examining the triggers, immediate aftermath, humanitarian realities, and ensuing political crisis within Spain, the European Union, Morocco, and globally. Guest Aitor Hernandez Morales (Politico reporter) offers on-the-ground insights and analysis of regional tensions, the weaponization of migration, and the backlash reverberating throughout Europe.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Happened in Ceuta?

[00:45–03:27]

• Event Recap
  • On Thursday, 72,000 migrants, mostly from Morocco, surged into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in North Africa, nearly equalling the city's official population (80,000).
  • At least 142 migrants died, mainly from drowning or trampling.
  • After only 48 hours, most migrants voluntarily returned; a couple thousand remain, including many unaccompanied minors.
• Local & Humanitarian Impact
  • Overstretched local resources: Many migrants slept in public spaces; the city was pushed into crisis mode.
  • Minors are being redistributed across Spanish regions and put into care centers per EU law for unaccompanied minors.
• Quote:
  • "It was an amount of people that was almost the size of the normal population of this exclave on the northern coast of Africa." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 02:18)

2. How Did It Happen?

[03:27–06:27]

• Escalating Movement & Border Dynamics
  • The influx started with “a trickle and then a torrent” of men swimming and crossing over beaches.
  • Online rumors spread rapidly in Morocco, falsely claiming Spain was relaxing entry rules and even offering money to arrivals.
  • Moroccan border guards disappeared, allowing unrestricted passage.
• Historical Context
  • Parallel drawn to a 2021 incident when Morocco permitted mass crossing after Spain angered Moroccan officials, suggesting potential government complicity.
• Quote:
  • "It seems that what really triggered it was...rumors that began to circulate online in Morocco, and then additionally, the disappearance of the Moroccan border guards that are normally there to stop people from crossing over." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 05:28)

3. Why Did Most Migrants Leave So Quickly?

[08:02–09:49]

• Ceuta’s Realities
  • Migrants realized passage to mainland Spain (and thus to greater Europe) was impossible without documents; border enforcement is strict due to Schengen exceptions for exclaves.
  • The city went into self-imposed lockdown, shops closed, leaving migrants with limited access to food and shelter.
  • Return rates were extraordinary—125 people per minute at peak.
• Quote:
  • "They very quickly came to the conclusion that there was no point to their being there." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 09:31)

4. EU Political Response and Backlash

[10:10–17:32]

• European Alarm & Outrage
  • The incident provoked a hostile reaction in the EU, especially from hardline leaders like Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Germany's Friedrich Merz, who pointed to Spain’s progressive migration policies as the cause.
  • 22 of 27 EU leaders signed a letter criticizing Spain, with Italy halting Schengen visa-free travel from Spain.
• Debunked Claims
  • Spain’s pathway to legal status for migrants is unrelated: it only affects those already in Spain pre-2026, not recent arrivals.
  • During emergency EU meetings, facts changed the tone—eventually, officials recognized Spain's lack of culpability but doubled down on border security.
• Political Context
  • Electoral incentives played a significant role—much rhetoric seen as posturing for domestic anti-migrant audiences.
• Quote:
  • "The conversation about migration in Europe has clearly shifted dramatically to the right, to the point where...even progressives...conclude that Europe needs to beef up its borders, and that migration is...a threat to Europe." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 17:23)

5. Spain–Morocco Tensions: Migration as Leverage

[19:00–22:50]

• Geopolitical Pressure Tactics
  • Morocco has a history of using migrant flows as diplomatic leverage, corroborated by the earlier 2021 incident.
  • The immediate catalyst: Spain recently restored ties with Algeria (Morocco’s rival), signed energy deals, and upset Rabat.
  • Historical disputes over Western Sahara continue to underlie tensions.
• Quote:
  • "Ultimately, Morocco has realized that with Spain there is a very easy way of exerting political pressure through these kind of situations." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 19:34)

6. US Politics, Morocco’s Claims, and Rising International Stakes

[22:50–24:50]

• US-Morocco Alignment
  • The Trump administration’s 2020 recognition of Morocco’s Western Sahara claim (in exchange for ties with Israel) continues to impact regional politics.
  • Recent US Republican and Israeli signals have emboldened Morocco's claims to Spanish territories, raising sovereignty stakes for Spain.
• Quote:
  • "What we have seen more recently is figures associated with the MAGA movement have begun amplifying Morocco's claims to Spain's autonomous cities." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 24:10)

7. Fuel for the International Anti-Migrant Debate

[25:02–26:55]

• Populist Weaponization
  • US political figures, including Donald Trump, amplified the incident as an "invasion"—using it to bolster anti-migrant, nationalist platforms.
  • The visual spectacle of mass border crossing is fueling anti-migration sentiment, making future progressive policy almost impossible in Spain and the EU.
• Demographic Realities
  • European leaders acknowledge their economies need migration due to an aging population—yet political climate is all but inhospitable to reform.
• Quote:
  • "These images from Ceuta are...visually a disaster...so disturbing for a lot of people...that I think it is going to make it all the more difficult to carry out what would be common sense migration policies." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 26:23)
  • "Are we going to have a Ceuta situation?" (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 26:55)

8. The Humanitarian Cost

[27:17–28:35]

• Political Chess, Human Tragedy
  • Migrants are caught as pawns in power plays between states; conditions are dire and dangerous.
  • Desperation, not opportunism, drives these crossings.
• Quote:
  • "These are people who are being used as chess pieces in a geopolitical game, and these are human beings." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 27:42)
  • "Nobody voluntarily jumps into the ocean and tries to swim to a beach with the hope of...making it to Europe just because they want better conditions. These are people who are in very desperate situations back home." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 28:17)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote / Moment | |-----------|------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:18 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "It was an amount of people that was almost the size of the normal population of this exclave on the northern coast of Africa."| | 05:28 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "Rumors that began to circulate online in Morocco, and then additionally, the disappearance of the Moroccan border guards..." | | 09:31 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "They very quickly came to the conclusion that there was no point to their being there." | | 17:23 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "Even progressives... conclude that Europe needs to beef up its borders, and that migration is...a threat to Europe." | | 19:34 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "There is a very easy way of exerting political pressure through these kind of situations." | | 24:10 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "Figures associated with the MAGA movement have begun amplifying Morocco's claims to Spain's autonomous cities." | | 26:23 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "These images from Ceuta are...visually a disaster...so disturbing for a lot of people..." | | 27:42 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "These are people who are being used as chess pieces in a geopolitical game, and these are human beings." | | 28:17 | Aitor Hernandez Morales | "Nobody voluntarily jumps into the ocean and tries to swim to a beach ... These are people who are in very desperate situations back home." |

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Important Segments (Timestamps)

• Ceuta Event Details and Local Impact: 00:45–03:27
• Mechanics, Rumors, and Border Politics: 03:27–07:06
• Returned Migrants & Local Lockdown: 08:02–09:49
• EU Political Reaction: 10:10–17:32
• Spain–Morocco Geopolitics: 19:00–22:50
• US, MAGA, and International Angles: 22:50–24:50
• Populism & Anti-Migration Messaging: 25:02–26:55
• Humanitarian Reflection: 27:17–28:35

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Tone & Final Thoughts

The episode delivers a sober, nuanced, and deeply human view of the 2026 Ceuta incident—balancing geopolitical explanations with the plight of ordinary people caught between borders and politics. While maintaining a journalistic tone, the dialogue underscores Europe’s increasingly defensive posture on migration, the volatility of regional alliances, and the personal cost of political gamesmanship.

Final Reflection:

• "It’s really important to take a moment to look past the politics…These are people who are being used as chess pieces in a geopolitical game, and these are human beings." (Aitor Hernandez Morales, 27:42)

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Transcript

[Podcast Host]

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[CBC Announcer]

This is a CBC podcast.

[Jason Markusoff]

Hey, it's Jason Marksoft filling in for Jamie.

[Co-host/Interviewer]

Last Thursday, a massive wave of people arrived on the shores of Ceuta, a tiny Spanish enclave in North Africa. The 72,000 migrants came from neighboring Morocco, spurred by a flurry of online rumors.

[Jason Markusoff]

According to Spanish media, around 142 of

[Co-host/Interviewer]

them died at the border, mostly from drowning or trampling.

[Jason Markusoff]

And if it was a wave coming in, it receded just as fast in about 48 hours. Most of the migrants left largely on their own accord, but what's lingered is a political crisis for the pro immigration

[Co-host/Interviewer]

Spanish government in an increasingly anti immigration European Union that's focused on border security.

[Jason Markusoff]

And there are questions surrounding how exactly

[Co-host/Interviewer]

this came to be and who's to blame.

[Jason Markusoff]

Aitor Hernandez Morales is based in Brussels,

[Co-host/Interviewer]

Belgium, and has been covering the political fallout over the last week for Politico.

[Jason Markusoff]

He's also reported for many years in Spain.

[Co-host/Interviewer]

Hi Tor, it's great to have you back.

[CBC Announcer]

Lovely to be with you.

[Jason Markusoff]

So Aitor, as I mentioned in the intro, the vast majority of migrants that came to Ceuta from Morocco left very soon after, but as of Wednesday afternoon, a couple thousand are still there.

[Co-host/Interviewer]

I understand a lot of them are kids.

[Jason Markusoff]

Can you tell me what's happening with

[Co-host/Interviewer]

them right now and how people are doing in Ceuta?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Yeah, so obviously for the city of ceuta, which has 80,000 inhabitants, the past few days have been very chaotic. In total, what we're hearing from the Spanish government is that 72,000 people made

[CBC Announcer]

it across the border.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So, you know, it was an amount of people that was almost the size of the normal population of this exclave on the northern coast of Africa. While, as you mentioned, the vast majority

[CBC Announcer]

of them have returned.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

The Spanish government has very clear laws with miners. They are now to be redistributed to different Spanish regions on the mainland, and there they will be put into centers where they can be taken care of and where they will, you know, receive

[CBC Announcer]

the attentions that the EU normally affords to unaccompanied minors.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

In terms of how the, the exclave continues to live through this situation, it's obviously very uncomfortable for people who live in the city. It's not just the, the disturbances that were caused by so many people coming in, but also the fact that when we talk about these, these over a thousand people that are left, you know, they are sleeping in squares, they're sleeping on the beach. It is a crisis situation and a humanitarian situation, which for the moment, is unresolved.

[Jason Markusoff]

So paint me a picture of how this, how this happened. Let's clarify that.

[Co-host/Interviewer]

This is in Africa. This is across the Strait of Gibraltar, not mainland Europe. Yeah, but that's, you know, 72,000 people. That's a lot.

[Jason Markusoff]

How did this happen?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So it, it happened first as a

[CBC Announcer]

trickle and then a torrent.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

What we began to detect were small clusters of young men swimming across the

[CBC Announcer]

beachhead that separates the, the Moroccan coastline from the Spanish coastline.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So the, the, the main city that was affected was soa. We also had some incidences in Melilla. And just for your listeners to get a clear idea about this, these are two Spanish fortified cities on the northern coast of Africa. So on one side they have the

[CBC Announcer]

Mediterranean Sea, and behind them they have Morocco.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

These are Spanish possessions that have existed

[CBC Announcer]

and have been ruled by Spain for

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

literally hundreds and hundreds of years. And these are cities that have always had their own status within the Spanish state, and that in modern day Spain. So in democratic Spain, constitutionally, they have

[CBC Announcer]

the same status as any other Spanish region. They have their representation in the Spanish parliament.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So going back to your question, what happened on Thursday is that it began

[CBC Announcer]

with these small groups of men who

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

were swimming around the border and coming in to the Tarrafal beach in Ceuta. And then gradually this number began to

[CBC Announcer]

ramp up and ramp up over the course of the day until it just became this human tsunami in a lot of ways.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Through the floating debris left behind by hours of chaos and frenzy, still more people came to Theoto today, landing on Spanish territory, having skirted round the headland from Morocco. More surges by land, too, adding to the tens of thousands of people who've breached this border with mainland Africa since just yesterday.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

You know, the first question that was

[CBC Announcer]

asked is, how is this, how is this possible?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And it seems that what really triggered it was one, a series of rumors that began to circulate online in Morocco, and then additionally, the disappearance of the

[CBC Announcer]

Moroccan border guards that are normally there to stop people from crossing over.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So with the incredible amount of people that were coming over Spanish Border guards

[CBC Announcer]

were very quickly overwhelmed and were basically unable to stop folks from coming through.

[Jason Markusoff]

And were these mostly Moroccans or people from elsewhere in Africa?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

We're still trying to get a clearer picture, but the overwhelming impression, because obviously

[CBC Announcer]

they weren't checking people's documents once they,

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

once they decided to return, is that they are Moroccans. And that of the people who have remained so that, that small, that small number that I, that I mentioned at the beginning, those either they are minors, some of whom are Moroccan, or they are adult sub Saharan Africans who don't

[CBC Announcer]

really have anywhere else to go back to.

[Jason Markusoff]

I understand there was a bunch of

[Co-host/Interviewer]

false rumors on or misleading rumors online that were propelling that. What can you tell me about those?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Yeah, so it's a pretty interesting situation. We have heard that on social media channels that are frequented or followed in Morocco, this message began to circulate saying

[CBC Announcer]

that Spanish authorities had relaxed the rules

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

and that as long as you crossed

[CBC Announcer]

in from the sea, you would be allowed to stay. We've also heard that in some of these messages they even implied that if you crossed over, some Spanish authorities would give them money.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So it seems like that definitely generated

[CBC Announcer]

a lot of interest.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

It is generally accepted that this situation could not have expanded to the, to the extent that it did without some

[CBC Announcer]

kind of complicity on the part of the Moroccan government.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And what I mean by that is

[CBC Announcer]

that when we had a previous incident

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

with similar characteristics back in 2021, when

[CBC Announcer]

8,000 unauthorized migrants crossed over.

[Field Reporter]

Footage from local Pharaoh TV channel showed soldiers in arm vehicles rushing to the beach as hundreds of potential migrants stood on the Moroccan side of the fence. Reuters journalists saw Red Cross workers helping migrants laying on the floor. At least one person died in the crossing, according to a local government spokesperson.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

We had a lot of these very similar characteristics. The border guards vanished, these people crossed over.

[Co-host/Interviewer]

So I guess that those investigations and the truth about what happened here will come out over time. But I think what's amazing about this is as fast as it these 72,000 people came, 70,000 or so of them left.

[Podcast Host]

Indeed.

[Jason Markusoff]

Was that on their own accord or what happened there?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So what we saw very quickly is that Ceuta seems to have its own way of dealing with these crisis situations. And basically the local population, when they

[CBC Announcer]

see that this is happen, they go into self imposed lockdown, they close their shops, they sequester themselves in their homes.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And so it seems like a lot of the migrants crossed over and then

[CBC Announcer]

immediately realized that first and foremost they

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

could not get across to the Spanish mainland. That's because even though Ceuta belongs to the Schengen Zone, which is this free travel zone that includes 29 countries in Europe, the Spanish exclaves have an exception to that rule, which is that to cross over to mainland Spain and therefore

[CBC Announcer]

to continental Europe, documentation has to be provided. These people did not have documents, therefore, they had no way of getting on the ferries that connect Ceuta to mainland Europe.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And then separately, you know, they're stranded in the city, all the shops are closed, they have no place to sleep. We're talking about summer in Northern Africa, so it's very, very warm. They have no way of getting food or water.

[CBC Announcer]

A lot of these people, it seems, very quickly came to the conclusion that

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

there was no point to their being there. And again, this is why authorities think

[CBC Announcer]

that the majority of them were probably Moroccan, they very quickly came to the conclusion they were better off just crossing

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

back across the border and going home. And on Friday, the numbers that we got from the Spanish government were that

[CBC Announcer]

at, by midday, people were returning back across the border at a rate of 125 people per minute. So it really gives you an idea of just how quickly first people came in and then left.

[Jason Markusoff]

Before we get into some of that,

[Co-host/Interviewer]

the interconnected relations between Spain and Morocco, let's talk about the rest of Europe, which also saw this as a real provocation and a problem.

[Jason Markusoff]

You know, Spain seems like it's been

[Co-host/Interviewer]

a bit of an outlier in the European Union with its more progressive approach to migration. And we saw kind of the pointy edge of that this week with 22 of 27 EU leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz, signing this open letter taking aim at the migration policies. How would you characterize the reaction from Europe?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Initially, it was a really interesting situation because the reaction was certainly spearheaded by Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni, who is on the far right and has championed

[CBC Announcer]

very severe migration policies.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And when the first images came out of Spain on Thursday, she immediately came

[CBC Announcer]

out to say that Spain had lost

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

control of the border. And she attributed the surge of migrants into Ceuta to the Spanish government's efforts to grant legal status to what it

[CBC Announcer]

appears it's going to be 1.2 million undocumented migrants living in Spain.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Now, the important thing to keep in mind here is that we're talking about

[CBC Announcer]

two totally unrelated issues.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So the legal status scheme rolled out by the Spanish government this year was presented in February, and it is only, or it was only available for people

[CBC Announcer]

who had already been living in Spain

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

and had been living in Spain for at least five months. Prior to the beginning of 2026. And the idea with this scheme was that Sanchez, the Spanish Prime Minister, was acknowledging that Spain, like the rest of Europe, is undergoing demographic collapse.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Spain offered immigrants the limited chance to become fully integrated, taxpaying residents. A million people who were previously living in the country without authorisation were on the path toward getting work and residency, perhaps permits. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is very much a progressive leader. He called the measure an act of justice and necessity, arguing that people already living and working in Spain should do so under equal conditions and pay taxes.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And so the idea was to create these conditions so that those people could get their, their papers in order and

[CBC Announcer]

be able to fully contribute to the

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

tax system, essentially to recognize the reality

[CBC Announcer]

of so many people already living in Spain. Now, the deadline to apply to that process was in June.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And what the Spanish government insisted from

[CBC Announcer]

the beginning was that these are, this is completely unrelated to Ceutha. None of the people who came into Ceuta could have possibly benefited from the scheme. None of the people who came into Ceuta had any right to remain in Spain. Despite that being very clear legally, a

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

lot of European governments chose to ignore

[CBC Announcer]

it and chose to use the situation

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

in Celta to attack the Spanish government and to claim that the Spanish government

[CBC Announcer]

had essentially brought this crisis on itself

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

and on the rest of Europe and

[CBC Announcer]

to really raise this alarm, saying that

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

the people who had come into Ceuta

[CBC Announcer]

would now be able to stay because of Spain's tolerant policies and that they would soon trickle into the rest of Europe. And so on Friday, for example, Italy suspended the application of the Schengen Agreement with Spain. So it started demanding passports and visas from all travelers arriving from Spain to Italy on planes or by boats. And very quickly we saw, for example, the Finnish Interior minister, who also belongs to a nationalist party. She came out and attacked the Spanish government and said that it had caused this. You saw even suggestions from friendly prime ministers like the Prime Minister of Sweden and Metta Frederiksen, the Prime Minister of

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Denmark, who is a Social Democrat, who

[CBC Announcer]

belongs to Sanchez's own center left European

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Social, Social Democratic grouping even.

[CBC Announcer]

She was taking pop shots at Spain and saying that Spain needed to, to take control of its affairs and that this situation was, was unacceptable.

[Jason Markusoff]

Were these, do you think, like legitimate diplomatic concerns or are these politicians playing

[Co-host/Interviewer]

to their own domestic audiences in criticizing Spain?

[CBC Announcer]

It very much feels like it is the latter, that these were politicians who were playing to their home audience.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

In Meloni's case, she was clearly playing to the conservative voters in Italy. What I would Say, is that more

[CBC Announcer]

broadly, when we look at figures like

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Merz or Merz in Germany or the Swedish Prime Minister, in that case, it was a reaction to the situation, and I think panic, panic. Because migration is such an explosive issue in Europe and because so many Europeans have ultimately come to the conclusion that Europe suffered during the 2015 migration crisis,

[CBC Announcer]

I think a lot of them scrambled to essentially say, you know, we're not part of this. We actually are protecting our borders. We're not soft on migration.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So it was.

[CBC Announcer]

It was very much an electoral reaction.

[Co-host/Interviewer]

This week, after this happens, the EU holds this extraordinary meeting of its ambassadors, then on Tuesday, its interior ministers. I've seen it described as this overdue show of solidarity.

[Jason Markusoff]

What came out of it?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Yeah, it was a really fascinating situation because, as you mentioned, 22 EU leaders signed on to this letter on Saturday in which they suggested that Spain's migration

[CBC Announcer]

policies may have caused this, and they demanded to have a meeting of EU

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

ambassadors on Monday and interior ministers on Tuesday. And it does seem that by the time everyone was facing one another, then

[CBC Announcer]

their tone changed very quickly because on the face of it, the facts out of Spain were relatively clear. It was evident that the Spanish policies had nothing to do with this very, very specific situation.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And Spain very much showed up in

[CBC Announcer]

a aggressively defensive manner, using data to show that actually, you know, Spain has fewer incidences of unauthorized entrances that than, for example, Italy.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Both the ministers and the ambassadors who attended these meetings ultimately switched course very

[CBC Announcer]

quickly and instead adopted a tone of

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

solidarity with Spain and one of, you know, broad support for reinforcing the bloc's borders. So to your question, what is. What is really interesting about these meetings and about this situation is that the conversation about migration in Europe has clearly shifted dramatically to the right, to the point where this situation, even if ambassadors

[CBC Announcer]

now recognize that, you know, Spain was

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

not at fault and that Madrid handled the situation as best it could, the overwhelming conclusion from this, from everyone, including

[CBC Announcer]

progressives, has been Europe needs to beef up its borders, and that migration is a. Essentially a threat to Europe.

[Podcast Host]

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[Jason Markusoff]

So for all this pointing fingers by

[Co-host/Interviewer]

European leaders at Spain, a lot of politicians in, in Spain are blaming Morocco.

[Jason Markusoff]

Can you help me understand why would Morocco, if it's true that they were

[Co-host/Interviewer]

orchestrating or behind it, why would they do that?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So Morocco and Spain have a complicated

[CBC Announcer]

relationship in, in a lot of ways.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Ultimately, Morocco has realized that with Spain there is a very easy way of

[CBC Announcer]

exerting political pressure through these kinds of situations.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And as I mentioned before, in 2021

[CBC Announcer]

we saw a clear example of that

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

where Morocco retired its border guards and

[CBC Announcer]

allowed 8,000 unauthorized migrants to stream into

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Ceuta to put the Spanish Prime Minister

[CBC Announcer]

in an uncomfortable situation. So let's get into that whole debate.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Spain, during the early half of the 20th century had possessions in Morocco that

[CBC Announcer]

included the Spanish Sahara Province.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

This province was taken essentially forcibly by

[CBC Announcer]

Morocco in 1975 when Spanish dictator Francisco Franco lay dying. They orchestrated a mass movement of people into this province and essentially forced the Spaniards to retire.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

The issue is that that province has

[CBC Announcer]

never been, or that territory now, which

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

is known as Western Sahara, has never been fully incorporated into the Moroccan state. Morocco claims it as its own. But both the UN and Spain and the wider European Union have always had the stance that Western Sahara should have the right to have a self determination referendum to decide whether it joins Morocco

[CBC Announcer]

or whether it becomes an independent state.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

This situation has been frozen for decades. And in 2021, Spain allowed the president

[CBC Announcer]

of the, of the independent part of

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

this, of this territory of Western Sahara to come to Spain to receive medical

[CBC Announcer]

treatment because he had a chronic illness. This upset the Moroccans a lot.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And so a few weeks after this happened, that's when this incident took place

[CBC Announcer]

where they retired the border guards and, and let these people through.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And it was widely read as Morocco

[CBC Announcer]

showing that it was unhappy with the Spanish government and essentially telling the Prime Minister, I know that when we do

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

this, this puts you in a very uncomfortable situation.

[CBC Announcer]

And we can keep doing this as many times as we need to to make you bow to our position.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

It was very effective because within a year, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reversed Spain's historic position on Western Sahara and

[CBC Announcer]

announced that Madrid now considered Morocco should be running this territory.

[Jason Markusoff]

So was there something that may have directly provoked this in summer 2026?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Yeah. So the suspicion is that this all has to do with Spain restoring ties with Algeria, a country that is Morocco's regional rival. So Algeria supports the independence of Western Sahara. And when Spain recognized Morocco's claim to the territory in 2022, ties between Algiers

[CBC Announcer]

and Madrid suffered greatly, and Algeria almost cut off relations completely with Spain.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Prime Minister Sanchez has been working very hard to restore those relations. And earlier this month, or rather last

[CBC Announcer]

month, he traveled to Algiers to sign a treaty of friendship with the Algerians, restoring commercial ties and actually committing Algeria to sell more natural gas to Spain.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

The suspicion is that the Moroccans were

[CBC Announcer]

very upset by this and that this latest move was undertaken to show that they are very unhappy with Spain.

[Jason Markusoff]

And don't mean to further complicate things, but does Morocco's closer alignment with the Trump administration add to the tension here at all?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Things have been very weird this year. It is absolutely true that at the same time that relations between Madrid and

[CBC Announcer]

Washington have grown worse because of the ongoing tensions between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is a progressive, and the

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Trump administration, notably for Sanchez's opposition to the war in Iran, relations between Washington

[CBC Announcer]

and Rabat are exceptional, and that's in

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

part due to a 2020 deal in which Trump accepted recognizing Morocco's claims to Western Sahara and in exchange for Morocco

[CBC Announcer]

establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, which was a major goal of the Trump administration as part of the wider Abraham Accords, and the administration's move to improve Israel's relationship with neighbors in that entire part of the world.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

What we have seen more recently is figures associated with the MAGA movement have begun amplifying Morocco's claims to Spain's autonomous cities. Earlier this year, a congressional report authored

[CBC Announcer]

by a prominent Republican congressman included language recognizing that Morocco had had a territorial

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

claim to Ceuta and Melia. And then simultaneously, you've also seen that

[CBC Announcer]

backed up by figures like Israel's ambassador to the United nations, who reacted to the crisis in Ceuta by questioning why Spain, you know, had allegedly had a colony still in Northern Africa.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So very much using these terms that

[CBC Announcer]

are aligned with Morocco's territorial claims over. Over the Spanish territory.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

So it's, it's, it's absolutely uncomfortable for

[CBC Announcer]

the Sanchez administration, and it is a

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

reminder that diplomacy is very important, even

[CBC Announcer]

with people who you don't necessarily agree with.

[Jason Markusoff]

And Donald Trump has weighed in on this.

[Co-host/Interviewer]

What happened In Ceuta, he called it a, quote, invasion and saying that, quote,

[Jason Markusoff]

the same thing's going to happen to us if the Republicans don't get elected, except worse. I mean, this, this imagery of thousands

[Co-host/Interviewer]

upon thousands of foreigners entering European territory all at once. It seems tailor made for populist ads and memes in Europe and North America.

[Jason Markusoff]

What do you foresee this becoming in

[Co-host/Interviewer]

the greater anti immigration immigration debate in the West?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

I think certainly in Europe, this is

[CBC Announcer]

going to be a talking point for the foreseeable future. And I think it is going to

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

lead to a lot of contradictory conversations. If you speak to any European leader,

[CBC Announcer]

they will recognize that again, demographically, the continent isn't doing well. It is a rapidly aging continent and it desperately needs people to be economically competitive. There's, there's, there's no way around it. And this is, you know, in, in, in the reports that we get from the European Commission, this is, this is made abundantly clear.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

And yet there is very much this narrative of foreign invasion, of people coming in, of changing our quote, unquote, European values. So the images from Celta are visually a disaster in a lot of ways because they're so, they're so shocking, they're

[CBC Announcer]

so disturbing for a lot of people

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

that I think it is going to make it all the more difficult to carry out what would be common sense migration policies. Unfortunately, because of the Silta crisis, I don't think we're going to see such ambitious, as ambitious migration policies in Spain in, in the near future and probably in the rest of Europe, because a

[CBC Announcer]

lot of people will on the right

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

and on the far right will argue, gosh, you know, if you pass this,

[CBC Announcer]

then are you going to end up actually pulling in unauthorized migrants?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

Are we going to have a Ceuta situation?

[Jason Markusoff]

We spent a lot of time on

[Co-host/Interviewer]

what the reaction has been to this.

[Jason Markusoff]

But you know, it's this time of

[Co-host/Interviewer]

massive global instability and conflict.

[Jason Markusoff]

What is this going to mean for people like the ones who are stranded

[Co-host/Interviewer]

on that beach in Ceuta right now, and others who could find themselves displaced and needing to find safety or better home?

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

I think, you know, a week after this crisis situation occurred, it's really important to take a moment to look past the politics of it and really look at the humanitarian aspect. These are people who are being used

[CBC Announcer]

as chess pieces in a geopolitical game,

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

and these are human beings.

[CBC Announcer]

So it is a really horrific situation.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

We don't know still the exact details

[CBC Announcer]

of how they were persuaded to cross over.

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

But ultimately these are people, especially the ones who have stayed who are in,

[CBC Announcer]

in a, in a desperate situation and

[Aitor Hernandez Morales]

who are sitting there in a beach on the, on the North African coast waiting to see what happens with them. It's worth, it's worth keeping in mind that nobody, nobody does this if they're

[CBC Announcer]

not in a desperate situation. Nobody voluntarily jumps into the ocean and tries to swim to a beach with the hope of at some point making it to Europe just because they, they, they want better conditions. These are people who are in very desperate situations back home.

[Jason Markusoff]

Aitor, thank you so much for explaining

[Co-host/Interviewer]

this all to us.

[CBC Announcer]

Always a pleasure.

[Jason Markusoff]

That's all for today. I'm Jason Markusoff.

[Co-host/Interviewer]

Thank you so much for listening.

[Podcast Host]

Foreign.

[CBC Announcer]

For more cbc podcasts, go to cbc ca podcasts.