Many boys from Morocco try to reach the European continent through the Spanish exclave Melilla. A search for these boys and their dreams in Fez, Melilla, Brussels and the Dutch city of Heerhugowaard. ‘In Europe, you can get 2000 euros a month. I want that too.’ (Article in Dutch)

The images from Ceuta in July 2026 were extraordinary. Tens of thousands of people moving towards, and into, the Spanish enclave from Morocco within a matter of hours; people swimming around the border barriers, climbing fences and running through the streets, not to mention the horrific and tragic loss of around 100 lives. But while the numbers were unprecedented, the underlying dynamics and even more so, the familiar responses, were not.

It’s still not clear how many people were killed at Barrio Chino on 24 June 2022. As many as 77 people, most of them young men who had fled their homes in Sudan and South Sudan, are still missing. A reconstruction by Ben Ehrenreich.

The death toll among those who attempted to scale the fence into the Spanish enclave of Melilla last week continues to mount. With 29 dead, mostly sub-Saharan African, the figure, if confirmed, is among the worst-ever disasters for the Spanish enclave on the north Moroccan coast.

Spanish officials say Morocco increasingly sees migrants as currency for financial and political gains after it let up to 12,000 flood into a Spanish enclave in North Africa over two days.

At least 6,000 migrants have reached Spain’s Ceuta enclave from neighbouring Morocco, a record number over a single day, Spanish officials say.