Families demand answers over Rabat’s decision to allow tens of thousands of people to enter Spanish enclave
Relatives and friends wait by a fence topped with barbed wire for the return of people who had previously crossed into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, at Morocco's Bab Sebta border crossing on the outskirts of Fnideq, on 2 August 2026 (Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP)
Published date: 5 August 2026 12:49 BST | Last update: 5 sec ago
At least 141 people died after Moroccan authorities opened the border gates into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, triggering what appears to be Morocco’s deadliest migration disaster in recent history.
Migrant rights organisation Caminando Fronteras said hospitals in northern Morocco had received 63 bodies recovered from Moroccan waters by Tuesday. The Moroccan government has not officially confirmed this.
Spanish officials told Cadena SER that authorities had found another 78 bodies in Spanish waters. The overall toll has therefore reached 141, far exceeding previous disasters along Morocco’s borders with Spain.
The 2022 Melilla border crush killed at least 23 people, according to the official toll, while rights groups recorded 37 deaths. Fifteen people died at Ceuta’s Tarajal beach in 2014.
Tens of thousands of people entered Ceuta, Spain’s North African territory, through the Tarajal crossing after Moroccan authorities opened the gates on Thursday.
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Moroccan hospitals in Tetouan, Tangier, Fnideq and M’diq are holding the bodies. Most victims were Moroccan men aged between 20 and 30. Sub-Saharan Africans, women and children were also among the dead.
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Spanish authorities have invoked the “multiple victims” protocol normally reserved for mass-casualty disasters such as train crashes and aviation accidents.
About 72,000 people crossed into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said.
Spain has since returned approximately 70,000 of them to Morocco, while an estimated 1,000 unaccompanied children remain stranded in Ceuta.
Anger is growing in Morocco over the authorities’ decision to open the border and the absence of accountability for the resulting deaths.
The mother of Moroccan footballer Faten Ben Omar El Azizi, who played for Moghreb Atletico Tetuan and died during the crossing, demanded answers before her daughter’s burial.
"The youth are lost… Who opened the door the first time? Why did they open it so that our children could be killed?" she said in a video published by Al Ayoum 24.
Meanwhile, the European Union praised Spain’s “swift response”. Irish Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said the bloc supported Spain and that migration required "a united European response".
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