Photo: APC

 

Radoš Đurović, Director of the Asylum Protection Centre, in statements to many media outlets regarding the humanitarian crisis and incident in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (July 30, 2026), expressed the opinion that it is hardly possible that the mass influx of people into Ceuta was spontaneous, and that the question is only who is the organizer of this crisis and for what interest, as well as when such an incident could be repeated in the near future. He expressed the opinion that the despair and difficult position of people, who were manipulated and tried to reach the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco, made this incident take on serious and tragic proportions, leading to the death of more than 70 people.

Đurović said that disturbing footage showed migrants from Morocco flooding into Ceuta, and that the ruling of the Spanish Supreme Court (in the dispute about how people can seek asylum in the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla) served only as a pretext, but not as the main driver of the sudden and massive influx of more than 60,000 people. While the main instigator of this event remains unknown to this day, many speak of smugglers, but would smugglers organize such undertakings if they could not profit from them, since people ultimately reached Ceuta themselves by swimming and entered it? Others speak of social networks, but can they gather and transport such a huge number of people in less than 24 hours from the interior of Morocco to Ceuta, which is located at the very edge of Africa facing Gibraltar?

“These things do not happen overnight. You cannot, after a ruling of a Spanish court, mobilize through social networks such a number of people to pass all barriers, the Moroccan police, and within 24 hours have 60,000 people arrive in front of the fenced and fortified territory of an EU member state. For comparison, at the peak of the refugee crisis in 2015, up to 10,000 people were entering our country daily, and we knew and expected this in advance from the countries ahead of us on the migration route.”

Đurović also referred to the history of such incidents concerning Spain’s African territories of Ceuta and Melilla, saying that a similar crisis occurred in Ceuta in 2021 when Moroccan authorities allowed 10,000 people to cross the border toward Ceuta, thereby sending a political message to Spain.
“Spain at that time received and provided medical assistance to one of the political leaders of Western Sahara, a region claimed by Morocco but resisting it. By accepting that leader, Spain indirectly sent a message of support for the resistance in Western Sahara, and the crisis was in a sense a message that if someone clashes with Morocco, they can expect such scenarios,” Đurović said.
According to him, Moroccan authorities allowed the current incident in Ceuta to happen through inaction, noting that Morocco has regular police forces around Ceuta but that they were not present during the latest incident.

Đurović pointed out that the migration crisis can also be viewed through the lens of new developments in the energy sector in that part of Africa, noting that it is indicative that such an incident occurred just over a month after Spain intensified cooperation with Algeria, Morocco’s main rival, regarding gas arrangements, and concluded a gas agreement with Algeria on June 20, 2026.

Commenting on the fact that EU member states expressed solidarity with Spain at an emergency online meeting of EU interior ministers, Đurović said that reactions before that meeting were contrary to the concept of solidarity and added that many countries were using the situation for political purposes, such as Italy, which, he said, closed its borders with Spain for populist reasons.
“Italy and Spain do not share a territorial border, and Italy can only control flights or ships arriving from Spain. No one who enters Ceuta can reach Spain or European soil without border control, because Ceuta is not in Schengen. That measure is ineffective, but it served the Italian prime minister to gain political points,” Đurović said.
He added that most countries were watching what was happening and criticizing Spain, but were doing nothing to resolve the crisis, warning that the scenario in Spain could have happened in any country and that the EU had shown its vulnerability. “It is enough for Morocco to do nothing and this can happen. But it could also happen in Turkey, Cyprus, Malta… Wherever the EU has external borders, such an incident, with the support of a neighboring non-member country, can easily be carried out, and then the entire EU concept of combating irregular migration falls apart,” Đurović said.
He said that since the 2015 migration crisis, the EU has invested enormous financial resources and changed regulations to address irregular migration, but that the solution does not lie in building physical barriers and fences, but in creating conditions for a normal life for those trying to reach Europe in the regions neighboring Europe, along the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The essence, he said, is to help neighboring countries build themselves into stable and successful societies capable of dealing with the problems brought by migration caused by conflicts in Africa and Asia, as well as by unstable and insecure living conditions.
The goal of European policy should perhaps be “To create conditions in which vulnerable people would remain, without necessarily entering the EU; that is, to support the countries of the Mediterranean basin, primarily North Africa and the Middle East, to build themselves into stable societies that can accept those coming from other countries and provide them with minimum conditions for a decent and safe life,” Đurović said.

He emphasized that Serbia is completely safe at present, and that the situation regarding the arrival of refugees in Serbia could potentially become complicated if the war in Ukraine escalates and large-scale destruction occurs. He expressed suspicion that the incident in Ceuta was also a kind of test for Europe, pointing to similar developments before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, when refugees from Iraq and Syria arrived in Poland via Russia and Belarus. “Polish authorities stopped that process and did not allow large numbers of displaced people to enter. We wondered why people were migrating to the EU via Belarus, who was organizing the route, and what was behind it. Then, in 2022, when more than eight million people left Ukraine within a month, it became clear to us that displaced people could also be used as an instrument in various geopolitical games,” Đurović said.
He also pointed out that the EU had developed a plan for dealing with irregular migration and that the Pact on Migration and Asylum has been in force since June 12 of this year. However, he said, it had not been applied in the case of Ceuta, suggesting that many EU states still lacked either the capacity or the willingness to implement it at this time. “There are many regulations in place, and they had a preparation period of a year and a half, but the implementation of the pact is not yet fully functional,” Đurović said.
He explained that the regulations provide for the European Commission or the country affected by a migration crisis to raise the issue in the Council of the EU, after which concrete measures are to be taken – measures that, so far, have not been implemented.