An angry crowd of locals mistook occupants of a car as pro-immigration aid workers from northern Spain
Furious anti-immigration protesters attacked a car carrying a local politician in the troubled Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Sunday. Locals, whose communities have been overrun by thousands of illegal migrants invading from Morocco, believed the vehicle carried a member of a pro-migrant activist group.
Footage shows protesters surrounding the vehicle, kicking and striking it, pelting it with eggs, and smashing its windows as police tried to hold them back. Riot police opened fire to disperse the crowd, multiple media outlets have reported.
The crowd had gathered at the port awaiting the Pamplona-based Negu Gorriak/Derecho a Techo (Right to a Roof) group, which had planned to travel to Ceuta to distribute humanitarian aid to migrants and protest alleged “violence” against them by the authorities.
Instead, the car carried local assembly deputy Julia Ferreras, Gaza Flotilla activist and lawyer Rafael Borrego, and UN human-rights lawyer Sofía Cánovas. Borrego told elDiario.es that protesters mistakenly identified him as one of the expected activists. Europa Press said that some protesters claimed the occupants had been filming and mocking them.
According to El País, protesters described the Pamplona activists as “radicals” and “pro-ETA.” ETA was a Basque separatist organization that waged a decades-long armed campaign for independence before dissolving in 2018. The allegation had reportedly circulated in WhatsApp groups used to organize the demonstration.
It is unclear whether the activists ever reached Ceuta. As of Monday afternoon, El Español reported that the group had not arrived.
Ceuta has faced a migration crisis since more than 72,000 people crossed from Morocco in late July. While most were returned, thousands remained, many in makeshift beach camps. On Friday, police and the military began moving them to temporary shelters, using rubber bullets and batons to control crowds.
Earlier on Sunday, more than 1,000 residents marched toward the Moroccan border, demanding stronger controls and criticizing the central government’s handling of the crisis.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned the attack, saying Spain could not “remain indifferent to the normalization of hate” and that “violence is never the way.” Ceuta’s regional government also condemned the violence, but acknowledged residents’ “tiredness, concern, indignation and even frustration,” saying they had a right to protest and demand that the enclave be “heard, attended to and protected.”
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