The Spanish government is taking decisive action to address the recent surge of migrants in Ceuta by deploying military forces to the area. This move comes after hundreds of individuals successfully entered the country’s North African territory from Morocco, with more reportedly en route.

Officials in Ceuta have confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the recovery of nine migrant bodies from the sea, following a tragic attempt to swim into the enclave the previous day.

The influx of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla remains a contentious issue. Thousands brave the journey across the border, highlighting the ongoing political tensions between Spain and Morocco.

Amidst these developments, Italy has called for Spain’s suspension from the Schengen Agreement, which permits passport-free travel across much of Europe. This proposition sparked dissent in Spain, leading to the Italian ambassador being summoned to Madrid for discussions.

Witnesses, including AFP journalists, observed a constant flow of adults and children, their clothes soaked, arriving in Ceuta after navigating the waters. Abandoned flotation devices and clothing dotted the coastline where the border meets the sea, underscoring the perilous journey undertaken by many.

“The armed forces will reinforce the Civil Guard in the exercise of its powers and any others that may be necessary to maintain security in the city of Ceuta,” Spain’s interior ministry said.

It did not specify how many soldiers would be sent to the small territory of 18.5 square kilometres but said the Civil Guard’s strength there would be nearly doubled from the current level of 80.

It will also send diving teams and coastguard ships.

But what is Ceuta, and why do some migrants hoping to reach Europe go there?

Why did the migrants travel to Ceuta?

Though Morocco and Spain face each other across the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, the Spanish city of Ceuta actually lies on the Moroccan side of the waterway.

Ceuta is an autonomous city, one of a series of small Spanish outposts along the Moroccan coastline. These cities are referred to as “plazas de soberanía” or “strongholds of sovereignty”. Like its sister city Melilla, Ceuta is a popular target for African migrants hoping to gain entry to Europe.

Ceuta is fenced off and heavily policed to prevent Moroccan migrants arriving over land, but it does have a port and a beach. Thus, the fastest option for a migrant looking to make it into Spanish territory is to swim from a neighbouring town, follow the Moroccan coastline and approach Ceuta by water.

Because Morocco doesn’t recognise Spanish sovereignty in Ceuta, and strongly opposed the construction of the fence around the city in the first place, Spain faces waves of migrants with little local assistance.

Spain and Morocco have always enjoyed strong diplomatic ties and trade. However, the situation in Ceuta has created a politically fraught sentiment between the two nations where immigration is concerned.

Spain ‘profoundly wrong’ to grant citizenship, Italy says

The Schengen zone is a system of open borders spanning 29 European countries that have officially abolished controls at their common borders.

“I am in favour of closing the Schengen area with Spain,” Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said in a post on X on Friday.

“Irregular and uncontrolled immigration poses a danger to national security,” he said.

“The images coming from Ceuta show how the Madrid government’s decision to grant Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to over 500,000 irregular immigrants is profoundly wrong and encourages human trafficking,” he argued.

Spanish foreign minister José Luis Albares responded by accusing Tajani of weaponising immigration for political ends.

He said such remarks were “improper” for “a partner and friendly country from which we expect European solidarity and not partisan demagoguery”.

The Spanish leader of Ceuta, Juan Vivas, said on Wednesday that 1,500 migrants had come to the exclave by sea in recent days.

“There is no more room for anyone,” he told Spanish television.

On the Moroccan side of the border, an AFP reporter saw hundreds of people, including children, gathered on Thursday evening near the border between Ceuta and the local town of Fnideq, waiting to cross into the Spanish territory.

Several people on the road told AFP they wanted to reach Ceuta, including a young man from Tangier with a backpack who said he had heard “the border had been opened”.

Gathering in Morocco

Migrants walked through the streets of Ceuta, thanking the Spanish police and calling out: “Bye bye, Morocco, hello Spain.”

Police and civil guards in Ceuta appeared to do little to intervene, although some officers attempted to direct the arrivals to the local migrant reception centre.

“It really breaks my heart to see so many people suffering, and who knows how many have actually drowned along the way,” one young man, a local resident, told AFP.

“When they arrive, they’re faced with the harsh reality that they have nothing and that people treat them as if they were nobody.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a post on X that his government was “focused on providing an immediate response to the crisis in Ceuta”.

“We are mobilising all necessary resources, working with Moroccan and international authorities, and preparing the necessary measures to restore normality as soon as possible.”

Sanchez spoke to Vivas, who described “with complete clarity and starkness the seriousness of the situation”, Ceuta’s regional government said in a statement.

Spanish interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska was to travel to Ceuta on Friday “to monitor the situation”, a ministry statement said.

Sánchez’s right-wing political rivals immediately pressured him on Thursday over the migrant arrivals.

“The government cannot look the other way regarding its duties because we are facing a national security crisis,” alleged opposition Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo on X.

Far-right Vox party leader Santiago Abascal blamed Sánchez personally for the migrant influx into Ceuta.

Ceuta and Melilla have Europe’s only two land borders with Africa.

In Sydney, the Royal Commission is currently scrutinizing allegations of antisemitism, spotlighting issues within government bodies, educational institutions, and the arts sector, as it delves into matters of social cohesion this week.

Throughout the hearings, Jewish professionals from various fields including arts, education, healthcare, and public service have been sharing their personal encounters with workplace antisemitism.

On Friday, renowned Jewish artist Nina Sanadze revealed that she faced antisemitic harassment following the leak of a private group chat in 2024, where she had referred to Hamas using harsh terms.

Sanadze testified that her words mentioning Hamas were altered to ‘Palestinians’ when the chat was disclosed, suggesting the changes were made to falsely accuse her of vilifying the Gazan people.

She further stated that the fear of antisemitic reprisals has made many of her Jewish peers hesitant to display their work publicly.

“Jewish creatives are such an incredible, extinct minority already, and we have been now erased almost entirely,” she said.

The Soviet-born artist felt the Australian creative sector has been “radicalised” by a Marxist-Socialist ideology since the 1960s.

“They divide people into oppressors and the oppressed. And if you’re in a category of the oppressor, any violence, any harassment, any bullying is by all means acceptable,” Sanadze said.

She said she struggled to engage with the art world’s discussion of the Middle East and pressure to attend rallies.

Another witness spoke of the two sides of the Australian comedy scene, which he said could be an open community, or a place of isolation, harassment and bigotry.

The witness, speaking under a pseudonym, felt exhausted trying to call out antisemitism and being ostracised.

Art funding distribution under scrutiny

On Thursday, Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism Jillian Segal made her third appearance to the Royal Commission, this time raising concerns that Jewish artists are unfairly excluded from public creative grants due to antisemitism.

“The arts are important in challenging our thinking … I wouldn’t want to, in any way, constrain that,” she said.

“But how do you balance that with making sure that everyone feels safe?”

Segal said supporting Jewish artists who were struggling to find work in the industry remained a “wicked problem”.

She also advocated for creating a separate grant panel for Jewish artists, while ensuring existing grant panel members take antisemitism training.

Frequent antisemitic harassment against students

Segal also gave evidence on existing training and guidance available across the education sector, saying education on antisemitism should be rolled out further.

“We should touch people in primary school and in secondary school … even touch being a tolerant, helpful young person in preschool, and we need to not only be high school, but university and TAFE,” she said.

The special envoy also highlighted the needs of teachers being overlooked in favour of student outcomes.

Segal said she was first confronted by the issue at a teacher’s forum hosted by Victorian billionaire John Gandel’s philanthropic foundation a few years ago.

“They explained to me that the most difficult thing for them was answering questions from students that they didn’t have the knowledge … that was even in relation to the Holocaust, but (also) how it morphed into antisemitism,” she said.

The inquiry also heard from the former head of Australia’s largest Jewish day school that students were frequently targeted by pupils from other schools.

John Hamey, former principal of Sydney’s Moriah College, told the inquiry that during his tenure from 2011 to 2018, he found many students from his school gave up reporting antisemitism incidents, due to their frequency and the lack of consequences for perpetrators.

“It was not necessarily something they would report because they would say, ‘well, nothing would happen’, or there’d be no serious outcome or consequence for the perpetrators of that antisemitism.”

Hamey also said most teachers outside Jewish institutions weren’t well informed about Jewish cultural life or equipped to identify antisemitism.

“They really lack the language,” he said.

The inquiry also heard from Michael Zervos, who provided an example of a successful anti-discrimination program for primary and secondary schools.

The Courage to Care program, which has reached to more than half a million students nationwide, focuses on bystander training and calling out discrimination of all kinds.

“We now call them ‘upstanders’, who had the moral courage to actually take some action and combat that discrimination and that racism,” Zervos said.

Courage to Care is an initiative created by B’nai B’rith, which describes itself as an international Jewish community service organisation committed to combating anti-Semitism, promoting Jewish unity and continuity, and “staunchly” defends the State of Israel.

It’s a connection Mr Zervos said he had had to defend.

“Our focus is on behaviour, so we are not an advocacy organisation. We’re not a political organisation … we know what our role is. We’ll leave that to other organisations,” he said.

Healthcare sector

The Australasian Jewish Medical Federation raised the issue of politicisation of Jewish identities in Wednesday’s hearings of the royal commission.

The federation provided the royal commission with examples of multiple incidents in which people felt unsafe or doctors were rejected by patients because of their cultural identity.

Federation president Jack Green said the organisation “hardly ever” received reports of anti-Semitism before the turning point of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

“There was increased politicisation in the health sector, there were a lot of social media postings,” Green said of the shift.

Doctors became afraid to display symbols indicating their Jewish identity and, in one instance, an Israeli-Australian patient experienced significant distress seeing “overt political symbols” in a Northern Territory hospital Green said.

Government policy in spotlight

On Monday, Australian Jewish Association chief executive Robert Gregory criticised the federal government for having “egged on” antisemitism since the October 7 attack in 2023.

“[Government] policy, some of the statements and actions from people, particularly in the federal government, have egged on the situation,” he said.

He claimed the government has refused visas “disproportionately to Jewish and Israeli people”, while citing the government’s refusal to grant a visa to a former Israeli minister.

In 2024, Home Affairs minister Tony Burke declined to grant a visa to right-wing Israeli politician Ayelet Shaked, citing concerns about social cohesion.

The inquiry also heard Jewish patients are scared of revealing their religious identity in hospitals, and some Jewish public servants feel worried about claiming their Jewish identity at the workplace.

The inquiry will continue on 4 August in Sydney, focusing on protests and policing.