Ceuta's dilemma: Morocco uses migration as a weapon

Segarro fires people instead of cannonballs

On 30 August 2026, the city of Ceuta has once again become the focal point. While the Spanish government and minister Mónica García argue over whether what is happening is a "humanitarian crisis" or an "invasion", the facts keep piling up at the border: people arriving by swimming, in boats, skirting the breakwater. The images were released by Faro de Ceuta, and they contradict any narrative of a "controlled situation".

In an article in ABC, Juan Soto Ivars declares the dilemma false and absurd: "Segarro fires people instead of cannonballs". The phrase is not rhetorical excess. It describes a strategy in which a neighbouring country sends masses of people against a border to create a humanitarian crisis on someone else's territory and, in passing, wear down the authority of the state. Minister Mónica García, for her part, prefers to avoid the word "invasion", considering it too warlike, and opts for "humanitarian crisis". The linguistic nuance does not stop the pressure from continuing.

The Western Sahara concession and the Pegasus blackmail

The debate is not limited to semantics. A sector of political opinion directly accuses Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of having given away Western Sahara and of now handing over Ceuta. A supposed blackmail scheme involving the Pegasus spyware is mentioned, and Spain's supposed weakness is compared with Israel's firmness towards the Arab world. Other voices, however, mock these theses: they point out that Western Sahara was not given away in 2026 but in 1975, and that no current leader can turn back time. The polarisation is complete.

The Sanchestein experiment

The headline of the ABC article takes the irony to the extreme: "Ceuta: the last experiment of doctor Sanchestein". The idea of a prime minister using Ceuta as a political laboratory is not just a provocation. It points to a widespread feeling: that the authority of the state has vanished from the autonomous city and that decisions are made on criteria that have more to do with political survival than with territorial interests.

The most unsettling fact is the persistence of the arrivals. It was not a one-day burst. People keep getting in, in broad daylight, while the authorities debate whether to call it by its name. Meanwhile, Ceuta remains Europe's southern border, and nobody seems to have a plan that goes beyond words.