Ceuta migrant surge is not just an invasion – it is a betrayal and a surrender

The latest developments are a consequence of PM Pedro Sanchez's undermining of Spanish sovereignty, argues John O'Brien. Migrants swim through the waters close to the border with Morocco to enter Ceuta (Image: AFP via Getty Images)The footage from Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish enclaves in North Africa where thousands of illegal migrants have rushed past the Spanish borders, ought to be of grave concern to all patriotic or sovereignty-minded people in Europe and beyond. The scale and pace of this mass violation of the Spanish, and therefore of the EU, border is suggestive not of what the EU prefers to term ‘irregular migration’ or of ‘humanitarian need’ but of an invasion. Despite the pleas of local officials, the Spanish state has sat back whilst tens of thousands of Moroccan residents blatantly violate all norms and laws of national sovereignty in what appears to be a coordinated attempt to render these Spanish territories unviable as Spanish.Even if law and order is restored on these territories, the legal architecture of European institutions will mean that there is little prospect of the illegal arrivals ever being returned. This is both a national and a continental catastrophe – ...