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Notes by Axbom
Per Axbom Akkoma

Page 13 in this week’s @thecontinent, with a report on the migrant crossing from Morocco into Ceuta that actually includes voices from people who were part of that crossing. The article explains the growing social media rumors and false information that triggered the events, and the complicated relationship between Spain, Morocco and Algeria - extending to the EU, USA, and Israel.

Extreme right voices in the EU used all this as fodder for anti-immigrant sentiments. And I’m sad to say Sweden’s own prime minister Kristersson was an example of one of those voices, authoring an opinion piece with many unfounded claims and further fearmongering. Far from a uniting voice.

Meanwhile, at least 70 people died in that crossing. In other media I’ve seen numbers as high as 88. Thousands were injured.

https://www.thecontinent.org/_files/ugd/287178_64d161d275444d9e86c3664887511430.pdf

A lot happened in Ceuta.
Here’s the breakdown.

Last weekend, 72,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, one of Spain’s two North African enclaves. The images
reverberated around the world. For the right wing in the West, it was fodder to hype up anti-migrant rhetoric. Real images mixed with the fake. This was an ‘invasion’. Never mind that Europe has paid off governments in North Africa to stop migrants. Moroccans have their own domestic reasons to want to leave. But the deadly rush in Ceuta has also exposed a centuries-old web of colonial history, territorial disputes, and regional rivalries stretching from Western Sahara to Gaza.

Photo of migrants in the water and on the beach at Ceuta. Caption ”Desperate measures: Migrants cross from Morocco into Ceuta, on 30 July. PHOTO: ANTONIO SEMPERE/AP PHOTO”

🔗 Originally posted on Akkoma

8 Aug 2026, 12:35
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