Understanding Europe

Nearly 2, 000 migrants have reached Ceuta over the past two weeks, most by swimming around the Tarajal breakwater separating Spain from Morocco |   Photo: Antonio Sempere / JNA via Zuma Press Wire
Officials believe that the asylum seekers in Ceuta were lured there by people smuggling gangs | Photo: Bernat Armangue/AP Photo/picture alliance
Spain dispatched the military to get the situation back under control | Photo: Henry Nicholls / AFP
Thousands of migrants who remain behind in Ceuta are facing overcrowded facilities, limited access to basic necessities and uncertainty over their future | Photo: Antonio Sempere / AP Photo
Migrants who crossed from Morocco into Spain line up for food distribution on a beach in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Monday, August 3, 2026 | Photo: Bernat Armangue / AP Photo