Locals torch migrant shelters as Spain's PM points blame beyond the border

close Video Angry locals tear down migrant camp in Ceuta Protesters tearing down migrant camp by the beach in Ceuta, Spain on Aug. 27, 2026. (Reuters.) NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Hören Sie sich diesen Artikel an 5 Min Residents in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta tore down and burned makeshift migrant shelters amid escalating tensions over a massive influx from neighboring Morocco, as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez accused Russian and Israeli-linked networks of helping spread Disinformation that fueled the crisis. Demonstrators carrying Spanish flags moved toward beachside migrant camps last week, destroying shelters and setting fires as police attempted to keep protesters and migrants apart, according to Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE and news agency EFE. Protesters chanted "Invasores, expulsión" — "Invaders, expulsion" — as they advanced toward the beaches where migrants have been staying, EFE reported Aug. 27. Hundreds of residents returned to the streets the following day, marching toward the Trampolín and Benítez beach areas where migrants were camped and repeating the same chant, according to EFE. The unrest follows an unprecedented surge on July 30 and 31, when more than 72,000 migrants irregularly crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, one of the European Union’s two land borders with Africa. At least 100 people died attempting the crossing, according to Ceuta authorities cited by Reuters on Aug. 31. Roughly 5,000 migrants remained in the enclave as of Monday. STATE DEPARTMENT RAISES TRAVEL WARNING FOR PART OF Spain AS MIGRANT SURGE SPARKS MILITARY DEPLOYMENT Law enforcement personnel stand while smoke and flames rise as Ceuta residents destroy a migrant camp by the beach, in Ceuta, Spain, August 27, 2026, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. (FORTA/Handout via Reuters) Sánchez on Monday directly linked the mass crossing to what he described as a foreign-backed Disinformation campaign. Spanish authorities have said misleading videos and posts circulating on Instagram, TikTok and other social-media platforms falsely suggested that migrants who reached Ceuta by sea would be permitted to remain in Spain. Ceuta MIGRANT SURGE EXPOSES Spain-Morocco TENSIONS AS ISLAMIST GROUPS REPORTEDLY SEEK TO EXPLOIT BORDER CRISIS Law enforcement personnel watch while protesters hold Spanish flags, as Ceuta residents destroy a migrant camp by the beach, in Ceuta, Spain, August 27, 2026, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. (FORTA/Handout via Reuters) Sánchez told radio station SER that research by the European Union’s diplomatic service, the European External Action Service, indicated Russian and Israeli networks had participated in spreading the Disinformation alongside far-right networks, Reuters reported Aug. 31. He argued that Russia and Israel had seized on the crisis to attack Madrid because of disagreements with his government over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. However, Sánchez provided no further details about the evidence supporting the accusation, according to the reports. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Sánchez of "lying shamelessly" and said in a post on X that the Spanish leader was attempting to divert attention from domestic policy failures. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov separately rejected Spain’s accusation that Russia was connected to the Ceuta migration crisis. Sánchez also rejected allegations that Morocco’s government deliberately facilitated the border surge, telling SER, "When people talk and speculate about the participation of Moroccan authorities, I deny this outright," according to Reuters. Spanish opposition parties and some human-rights organizations have accused Rabat of allowing the crossings, an allegation Morocco denies. SPANISH JOURNALIST SAYS Ceuta RESIDENTS BELIEVE GOVERNMENT ISN'T DOING ENOUGH TO PREVENT ANOTHER MIGRANT RUSH Workers carry the body of a migrant who died while trying to cross into Ceuta at the city's Muslim cemetery in Ceuta, Spain, August 21, 2026. (Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters) The Disinformation surrounding the Ceuta crossing had been building well before Sánchez publicly accused Russian and Israeli-linked networks. Fox News Digital reported Aug. 4 that an open-source investigation by Golden Owl Intelligence traced weeks of activity across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp that circulated misleading interpretations of Spanish Immigration law, along with information about routes, meeting points and recommended crossing times. The campaign intensified after Spain’s Supreme Court issued a July 8 ruling restricting the immediate return of migrants intercepted at sea near Ceuta and Melilla. Simplified accounts of the ruling, combined with confusion over Spain’s separate plan to regularize hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, were circulated online as evidence that migrants reaching Spanish territory would be allowed to stay. Spain'S MIGRANT SURGE REIGNITES DEBATE OVER EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR THREAT Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called the U.S. conflict with Iran "reckless" and "unjust." (Yves Herman/Reuters) Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, said at the time that Islamist movements were also seeking to exploit the crisis politically. Riboua argued that Islamist voices in Morocco and Spain were amplifying the unrest and portraying Europe as an attractive destination while using Morocco’s ties with Israel and the U.S. to attack the Moroccan government. In a July 31 analysis, Riboua wrote that Islamist activists had spent years encouraging young Moroccans to believe their country offered them little future and depicting Europe as a place where prosperity and opportunity were easily available. The crisis has also spread beyond Spain. Italy on Monday extended for another 15 days its suspension of Schengen free-movement arrangements with Spain, a step first imposed July 31 in response to the mass influx into Ceuta. Moroccan security forces clash with migrants attempting to cross into Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta near the town of Fnideq, on the Morocco-Spain border, on July 31, 2026. (Abdel Majid Bziouat / AFP via Getty Images) Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, warned Fox News Digital at the outset of the crisis that Ceuta could become "a key turning point in the unraveling of the European Union." "Once you unravel Schengen — which I think is inevitable — this breaks down the entire European project," Gardiner said. Efrat (Effie) Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital with more than 15 years of experience covering conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability. She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events. Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting the war in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders. She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition. Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting. She holds a bachelor's degree in communication and a master's degree in political science.