EU says Schengen integrity preserved after Ceuta crisis as commissioner warns of border reliance on neighbours

The European Commission called on Meta and TikTok to take decisive action against online disinformation, holding talks with both platforms on Friday after false social media rumours that Ceuta's border was open helped trigger a mass migration surge last week.

European Commissioner for Technological Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen urged the companies to strengthen cooperation with fact-checkers and increase monitoring to preserve the integrity of the digital space. Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner described the episode as a test of the EU's border security and its resilience against disinformation, adding that the bloc must improve its ability to track online misinformation trends during crises.

An investigation by analytics firm Golden Owl concluded with a high degree of confidence that the migrant wave was a deliberately orchestrated operation. Spanish authorities said roughly 72,000 people entered Ceuta within 24 hours last week, with 70,000 since returning to Morocco, while at least 82 people died attempting to reach the enclave by sea.

A sub-Saharan migrant died Friday after losing control of a paraglider and falling into the sea near Ceuta, marking the first known fatality from such an attempt after isolated paraglider crossings emerged over the past year.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights raised the border death toll to 141, dismissing Rabat's official count of 11 as outdated. Association president Souad Brahma said authorities placed 111 people in pre-trial detention across Tetuan and Nador, including dozens of minors. Morgues in Tetuan and Tangier hold at least 38 bodies, while calls circulate for a new mass crossing on 15 August.

Local authorities cleared more than 100 migrants from a Muslim cemetery and hired private security, launching sanitation drives in parks after roughly 70,000 of last week's 72,000 arrivals returned to Morocco.

King Felipe VI will make an official visit to Ceuta in the aftermath of the mass migrant crossings, the city's regional president Juan Jesús Vivas said following a meeting with the monarch at the Marivent Palace in Mallorca on Thursday. During the audience, the king expressed support, sympathy, and solidarity with Ceuta's residents over the events of 30–31 July, having earlier conveyed his "great concern and indignation" over the crisis. The visit would be Felipe's first to Spain's North African enclaves since his proclamation twelve years ago. Before the royal audience, Vivas met with Balearic Islands President Marga Prohens at the Consolat de Mar in Palma, where Prohens accused the national government of having "abandoned" border protection. Vivas said Ceuta remains "far from normality" a week after the crossings, which the Interior Ministry placed at some 72,000 people, most of whom have since returned to Morocco. At least 19 migrants have died and more than a dozen remain missing in waters near Mallorca.