Back to school amid migrant ‘invasion’: Police guard playgrounds, homeless defecate in view of classrooms and schoolgirls carry pepper spray as Ceuta’s hell continues
Children in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta returned to school under heavy security on 8 September 2026, with soldiers and police guarding classrooms and bus routes after a mass migration crisis that has gripped the North African territory. Teachers have reported homeless migrants defecating and urinating outside school gates, while worried parents have equipped their daughters with pepper spray, saying they no longer trust the authorities to keep them safe. The situation highlights ongoing tensions in Ceuta following an influx of migrants and has become a flashpoint in Spain's wider debate over migration policy.
It has been 40 days since around 70,000 North African migrants crossed onto Ceuta's beaches, and although most have since returned to Morocco, between 3,500 and 7,000 remain, many sleeping rough on beaches and playgrounds. Parents cited near-daily reports of violence, including attacks on the military and sexual assaults, with one mother telling Antena 3 that pepper spray supplies in the enclave had "run out". Some schools have hired private security, and the Ceuta government has delayed the reopening of state nurseries until 28 September. The unrest follows nationwide protests in Spain against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's handling of the crisis.
- Ceuta schools reopened under military and police protection amid migration crisis
- Teachers report migrants defecating outside classrooms; parents give children pepper spray
- Thousands of migrants remain after July's mass crossing; nurseries' reopening postponed
New here? Start with this
Ceuta is a small Spanish city on the North African coast, bordering Morocco. It has long been a route through which people from Morocco and other African countries try to reach Europe, since it is Spanish territory even though it sits on the African mainland. Its schools, streets and beaches now sit close to a much larger number of migrants than usual.
Around six weeks earlier, roughly 70,000 migrants crossed onto Ceuta's beaches over a short period, overwhelming the enclave's small size and services. Most have since gone back to Morocco, but several thousand remain, with many sleeping outdoors, including in areas near schools. This has strained local authorities, who are responsible for both migrant welfare and public safety, and has fed into a wider national argument in Spain over how the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is managing migration.
The story matters because it touches on the everyday lives of Ceuta's residents, particularly families with children, as well as on Spain's obligations towards migrants and its relationship with Morocco. It has also become a symbol in the broader political debate about border control and migration policy across Spain and the European Union.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Parents and residents who want firmer border control and swifter removals argue that any government's first duty is to guarantee the safety and dignity of children and families, and that a small territory like Ceuta simply lacks the capacity to house, sanitise for, or supervise thousands of extra people sleeping rough near schools. They see the current strain, including reports of assaults and public health hazards, as evidence that Madrid and the EU have been too slow to secure the border, coordinate returns with Morocco, and fund emergency services, and that demanding faster, more robust enforcement is a reasonable response to a genuine breakdown in order rather than hostility towards migrants as people.
The case against
Advocates for a more measured, rights-based response argue that most of those arriving are themselves in desperate circumstances, often fleeing poverty or instability, and that framing the situation as an 'invasion' risks demonising vulnerable people and fuelling public fear disproportionate to the actual risk most individual migrants pose. They contend that the visible disorder reflects years of underinvestment in reception infrastructure and slow EU-wide asylum reform rather than any lack of resolve, and that the humane and ultimately more effective path is to expand shelter, sanitation and processing capacity while pursuing orderly, lawful returns, rather than leaning on heavy security narratives that can obscure the underlying humanitarian failure.