Ceuta Migration Tragedy: Morocco Releases Official Death Toll of 11
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Dhivyanshu
- . August 3, 2026
- . Update: August 3, 2026 4:16 pm
On Sunday, Morocco’s Interior Ministry finally commented on the crisis. Spokesman Rachid El Khalfi told reporters that some 40,000 people had tried to enter Ceuta, while another 1,135 had attempted to get to the nearby enclave of Melilla. Ceuta migration tragedy, Those who reached Melilla were all sent back to Morocco, El Khalfi said.
Ten people drowned as they tried to cross in the chaos, the ministry said, and an 11th person died after falling from a rocky section near the border. Rabat’s first official statement on the incidents that took place over several days at the end of July, when tens of thousands tried to cross the border between Morocco and the Spanish territory.
A Wide Gap With Spanish Numbers
This figure for Morocco is in stark contrast to figures coming out of Spain. The number of bodies recovered along the coast of Ceuta has risen to at least 72, Spanish authorities said, with some local officials reporting even higher numbers. The Civil Guard in Spain has begun taking fingerprints and DNA samples to identify the dead, something which is expected to take at least another week.
By the weekend, conditions in Ceuta had improved, officials said, but authorities warned that normal operations had not yet fully returned. Some of the dead drowned while trying to swim around breakwaters, others were crushed trying to clamber over barriers separating Morocco from Spanish territory, the report said.
Morocco has said it is working with its Spanish counterparts to reconcile the two death tolls and check the identities and nationalities of the dead. But no timeline has been given for resolving the discrepancy.
What Sparked the Rise?
El Khalfi said the mass crossing attempt was not a spontaneous event but the result of a mixture of factors. He referenced social-media disinformation, the role of human trafficking networks, and what he called a misinterpretation of a Spanish legal ruling that restricts the immediate repatriation of migrants intercepted at sea. Morocco’s authorities said the ruling had been misinterpreted by potential migrants as a sign that attempts to cross would not be turned back.
The surge was fast. What started with increased arrivals of a few hundred people a day became a mass crossing of the border, with much of the movement happening between Wednesday and Friday last week. Spanish officials said tens of thousands of people who had crossed into Ceuta had voluntarily returned to Morocco by the following Friday, easing some of the pressure on the city’s overwhelmed reception centres.
Diplomatic Fallout Throughout the EU
The possibility of the crossing attempt has sparked tensions inside the European Union. Spain’s leadership has complained of what it called a “selfish” response by other member states, saying Spain took the brunt of dealing with the crisis when other EU governments gave little help. The incident has reignited long-standing debates over migration policy on the bloc’s only land border with Africa.
In response to the influx, authorities have tried to beef up Ceuta’s defences, including finishing a 500-meter floating security barrier at the Tarajal border crossing to help stop more irregular sea crossings.
Search and identification efforts are ongoing – Ceuta migration tragedy
Since the initial surge, search and recovery operations have continued along the coastline, with diving teams working to locate additional bodies near the breakwaters. Officials on both sides of the border have warned the final death toll could still rise as identification work proceeds and more remains are recovered.
For now, the gap between the figures put out by Rabat and Madrid highlights the difficulty in getting an accurate account of the tragedy, even as both governments say they are working together to get a shared sense of what happened — and the toll.
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