What Ceuta Looks Like Now—and What Our Media Is Not Showing You

Do you remember our mainstream media telling us that almost all the migrants who entered Ceuta had been returned to Morocco? The official claim was that around 70,000 of the estimated 72,000 arrivals had gone back. We were even presented with “fact-checking” articles intended to reassure us that reports questioning this narrative were misleading.

Yet the images now emerging from Ceuta tell a rather different story.

Thousands of migrants appear to have remained in the Spanish enclave. The precise number is disputed: Spain’s Interior Ministry has estimated around 5,000, while local officials and humanitarian organisations have placed the figure closer to 9,000 or 10,000. Many have been living on beaches, in woodland or in makeshift camps, while the authorities struggle to provide shelter and basic services.

This does not mean that the claim that most migrants returned was necessarily false. It does, however, show that the original figures were far less definitive than the public was led to believe. If as many as 10,000 people remain in a city with a population of approximately 84,000, this is hardly an insignificant detail.

Nevertheless, Ceuta has virtually disappeared from our local news. The dramatic assurances were widely reported; the subsequent uncertainty and continuing crisis have received considerably less attention.

These videos show what Ceuta looks like now. They reveal a reality that does not fit comfortably within the reassuring narrative initially presented to us. The issue has been swept under the proverbial rug—not because it has been resolved, but because the continuing situation is far more difficult to explain.