The viral videos that inspired tens of thousands to swim to Spain’s Ceuta

Last week’s rush of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta began with a trickle. Encouraged by a handful of viral videos, ​including some posted by a Spanish news outlet intended to highlight the burden of migration pressures, the movement of a few dozen youths quickly turned into ‌tens of thousands swimming en masse by last Thursday. More than 80 people drowned or were crushed in a stampede, according to official tallies.

A catalyst came three weeks earlier, when Spain’s Supreme Court published a ruling saying migrants caught at sea could not be immediately pushed back at the border of Spain’s North African territories of Ceuta and Melilla. The ruling does not preclude their summary return afterwards, legal experts said. Ceuta has long drawn ​migrants hoping to build a new life in Europe.

But as misinterpretations of the ruling spread – including claims anyone who reached Ceuta, by sea or land, could not be ​returned – more and more people tried their luck. “Never believe those who tell you that if you get into Ceuta, they will send you ⁠back. You will not be sent back,” said a young Moroccan man filmed on a street in Germany in a video, which was deleted but later reposted by other accounts.

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Several posts ​on Meta’s platforms since July 7, including one with over 28,000 likes, also falsely claimed that Spain’s existing programme to regularise hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants would end on July 30. ​Similar messages circulated in the early hours of July 30. In fact, irregular migrants who had already been in Spain for at least five months before end-2025 could submit applications between April and June 30.

The Spanish government received more than double the 500,000 registrations it had expected and never extended the deadline. Most videos and online groups amplifying the calls to rush to Ceuta have since been deleted and their original posting dates are unclear. ​In 2024, Morocco prosecuted scores of suspected online instigators of a foiled mass crossing.

The ‌footage El Faro ⁠broadcast online of young men grinning and flashing thumbs-up and V-signs in Ceuta had the unintended effect of encouraging more people to attempt the crossing, according to migrants interviewed by Reuters. Hundreds began to swim across.

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