Moroccans Flooding Spain’s Ceuta Territory Expose Madrid’s Duplicity on Decolonization, Borders, and Migration

Spain is facing a challenge to back its rhetoric with action on migrants. As over 60,000 Moroccans flood into Ceuta on Africa’s Mediterranean coast, the same voices in Madrid that condemn other countries for imperialism, occupation, and border enforcement are defending that Spanish enclave and refusing to renounce its colonizer legacy.“The Socialist premier at Madrid, Pedro Sánchez,” The New York Sun wrote in a Friday editorial, “speaks of a ‘violation of Spain’s territorial integrity’ as thousands breached the border. Yet his outrage rings hollow in light of his recent sweeping amnesty to illegals in Spain. If that doesn’t amount to an incentive to jump the border, what does?”In April, Mr. Sánchez’s government legalized about half a million people in Spain. That he took the action by royal decree issued through the country’s monarch, King Felipe VI, didn’t stop the global “No Kings” faction from singing his praises.“Some leaders,” Mr. Sánchez said in a dig at President Trump, “have chosen to persecute and deport” those who ignore immigration laws, “through operations that are both illegal and cruel.” Yet faced with the tide of Moroccans, the premier is dispatching the military.Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, speaks in Rome after meeting Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on May 27, 2026. Pedro Sánchez via XMr. Sánchez called his amnesty “an act of justice,” steamrolling Spain’s conservative People’s Party which foresaw that rewarding illegal acts would encourage more. Fast-forward to Friday, and the prime minister calls the surge into Ceuta “a violation of Spain’s territorial integrity.”Spain somehow dodges the “colonizer” and “imperialist” labels tossed around by the global left. Take the Grammy Awards in February. When a singer, Billie Eilish, said, “No one is illegal on stolen land,” she was understood to mean the Southwest that America purchased after its war with Mexico in the 1840s, not Spain’s original conquest.Furthermore, when Gabrieleno Tongva tribesman arrived at Ms. Eilish’s $3 million L.A. mansion to reclaim their ancestral home, she didn’t sign over the deed. Nor does the singer and politician from Australia’s “Midnight Oil,” Peter Garrett — who owns millions in Aboriginal land — follow the refrain of his 1986 hit, “Beds are Burning,” and “give it back.”John Vanderlyn: ‘Landing of Columbus,’ 1847, detail. Via Wikimedia CommonsA Spanish actor, Javier Bardem, is among the “Free Palestine” activists casting Israelis as “occupiers” and “settlers” in the ancient Jewish homeland. He advanced a conspiracy theory across social media — quoting a comedian, Sundeep Bhardwaj — that “U.S. and Israeli terrorists” are behind the Ceuta incursion.Mr. Bardem also shared allegations by a philologist, Chaimaa Boukharsa, that “Morocco is a strategic ally of the Zionist project” using “the border as a tool of political pressure.” In another post, the actor touted Spain’s former left-wing senator, Ramón Espinar.Mr. Espinar blamed “Trump and Netanyahu” for Morocco’s migrants, charging that “in the face of interference with sovereignty, the right always sides with the invader, betraying Spain.” It was, however, Europeans who invaded Ceuta first.Spain prefers to ignore its colonial legacies in the Americas and its 400-year occupation of the Philippines. Most of the territories it conquered are now independent, but it clings to its African holdings, rejecting Morocco’s claim to the territories of Ceuta and Melilla.Morocco considers Ceuta — ceded to Spain by a fellow colonizer, Portugal, in 1668 — occupied. The claim is stronger than Argentina’s assertion of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, which Madrid backs despite Britons being the first humans to live there.Migrants cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, July 30, 2026. AP/Antonio SempereWhen Argentina invaded the Falklands in 1982, Madrid’s state-controlled press referred to Britain as ”intransigent” and ”colonialist.” Spanish socialists, according to the Christian Science Monitor, warned that Morocco “could use the same Argentine logic regarding” Madrid’s African settlements.In May 2024, when Spain’s second deputy prime minister, Yolanda Diaz, said “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” Mr. Sánchez failed to distance himself from what’s regarded as a genocidal slogan. Yet Madrid greets calls to push the Spanish out of Africa with indignation.By the definition applied to America, Israel, and Great Britain, Ceuta is stolen land and, therefore, no one is illegal on it. To be consistent with this ethos, Spain would need to erase its borders and decolonize its territories. Instead, expect Mr. Sánchez to join a chorus singing the same old song — condemning others while marching to a different tune themselves.

Moroccans Flooding Spain’s Ceuta Territory Expose Madrid’s Duplicity on Decolonization, Borders, and Migration

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