Migrant chases after Telegraf reporter on Ceuta beach of death, reveals terrible truth: We recorded every word

One city, two cries for help, hopelessness and fear that dictate everyday life. Two worlds facing each other in one place that is constantly changing the image of Europe. A Telegraf.rs team heard what ordinary people have to say in a hopeless situation. In the blink of an eye for the rest of the world, they live through horror, and that's if they are lucky.

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"I swam for five and a half hours! People died before my eyes, my friend died... He died! And I continued and entered Spain. We will live here without food, but we're not going back!," tells us an illegal immigrant, whose determination is reflected in every pore of the fear-written wrinkles on his once youthful face.

Only a few moments later, as the sun mercilessly pushes our bodies towards the land which has been marked by tragedies of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people for some time, we come across a completely different situation. There is no determination in this gaze, but every millimeter of a hunched posture shows the fear that is loudest in the eyes themselves.

"I can't even walk down the street anymore, they keep walking past me, do you understand?! The government brought enough food for them, but there's no bread in the stores for us. We are abandoned in our own city!," a resident of Ceuta, a Spaniard, tells us in a low voice, frequent turning around, as if she is afraid someone besides us could hear her.

Between these two cries for help, both desperate, scared and hopeless, one coming from the reed huts on the world's most notorious beach and the other coming from the central streets of a once beautiful tourist town, stands the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. A place where Africa and Europe do not touch, but collide directly, in a struggle for survival.

Politicians around the world issue their statements, the Red Cross of Spain struggles to provide migrants with a shred of dignity, the world follows the news from a safe distance, and the Telegraf.rs team went through all the security steps and entered the very center of the drama between two worlds, rich Europe and raw Africa.

Official information says - tens of thousands of migrants entered the territory of the Spanish exclave Ceuta at the end of July, a large number was deported just a few days later, and the fate of those who remained will be decided very soon. Ceuta residents, on the other hand, argue differently. According to them, at least 160,000 people entered, almost twice as many as the population of Ceuta. They say, maybe some have been deported, but the situation is far from being resolved.

"When will it be resolved? We don't know. How will it be resolved? We don't know," Angela, one of the few locals we encountered on the streets, tells Telegraf.rs.

Military and police deployed around the clock

The humanitarian crisis in Ceuta erupted the second a massive break-in occurred across the coast at the end of July, turning this Spanish exclave into a place of complete logistical and human paralysis. After several days of sporadic crossings, the situation got out of control when thousands of Moroccans flooded the beaches on foot or by swimming around the border breakwater, arriving on land completely exhausted and scarred. This mass of people, now living in makeshift accommodation, boiling sea water to survive and sleeping on cardboard in reed huts, have fundamentally collapsed the local migrant reception system. The temporary detention center (CETI), overcrowded beyond its capacity, has closed its gates, which brought the area to the very brink of a hygienic and sanitary disaster.

Madrid and local authorities reacted in a state of high alert and deep political tension. While members of the Civil Guard and emergency services on the ground tried to treat the injured and ensure basic order, the mayor-president of the autonomous city of Ceuta, Juan Jesus Vivas, asked the Spanish government to declare a state of national emergency and assume unified command of the crisis. At the same time as issuing appeals to citizens for calm, Spanish authorities raised security protocols to the highest level, with Algeciras and access ports placed under police siege, while legal and political disagreements over speedy deportations and the scope of recent Supreme Court rulings happen alongside a race against time.

From Algeciras itself, the last point of mainland Spain before Ceuta, members of the military and the police are working full steam. The Telegraf.rs portal team already faced the police in that city, across from the Rock of Gibraltar, who stop everyone, inspected cars and passports. Police helicopters fly above Algeciras and Ceuta, two cities on opposite sides of Gibraltar, as well as across the Mediterranean Sea itself. From the ferry on which we traveled to Ceuta, we could see a large number of police boats intercepting small local boats, checking for migrants on board. To prevent their further penetration into Western Europe. After getting off the ferry, we were met by the army, two soldiers placed 50 meters apart, guarding the citizens and monitoring every movement of migrants who entered Spain illegally. Police vans passing through the streets, and security introduced in local stores.

First impression: Ceuta is under two sieges, the migrant and the police, and now that I'm back, I'm not sure which of those two sieges made me afraid - the migrant, due to all the prejudices we acquire through life situations, or the police, due to the fact that they are a clear reminder that the situation is really on the verge of escalation.

Migrants flooded the city

From the safe distance in Serbia, we imagined Ceuta as divided - this part of the city belongs to the migrants, they are there only, the other part is Spanish and we will be there only with the Spanish. The reality that awaited us on the ground is completely different. Every room in Ceuta, which was occupied by tourists in previous seasons, has now become temporary accommodation for Moroccans who had the money to afford it. The aforementioned CETI is currently full of minors, while Moroccans unable to pay for accommodation and are of age, even if only 19 years old, are sleeping on the beach, only 2 kilometers from the city center and the port and some 600 meters from the shelter.

On that beach, some of the most dramatic images that went around the world in 2026 were recorded. A harsh picture of poverty and despair. Cardboard boxes are scattered across the sand, and small reed huts and tents are erected around them. A fire is lit in front of one of them, and on it a plastic bottle full of sea water - the migrants will not get sick from the salt and dehydration, but they might from the melted plastic, which they drink along with the water. They make coffee and offer us some: makes sense, we came to their house. And then the young man mentioned at the top of this article, Karim, comes out of his hut and calls us over to tell us his story, because he realizes that maybe we are the only way for his voice to be heard.

"I swam for five and a half hours! People died before my eyes, my friend died... He died! And I continued and entered Spain. We will live here without food, but we're not going back! Long live Spain, long live Pedro Sanchez," Karim, a 19-year-old, told Telegraf.rs and led us into his "house", and if you are interested in what else he said and what the makeshift dwelling looks like inside, read our upcoming articles.

The migrants' everyday life is empty, devoid of everyday tasks that people do in their everyday lives. Instead, they wander between the beach showers, the city center and their seaside "houses" in an attempt to pass the time of day, that passes mercilessly slowly. Every second reminding them that they might return to the misery they escaped from, which, as they told us many times, is worse than the life they live on that beach.

Which is hard for us to imagine.

Traumatized Spaniards stay indoors

We left the beach in silence and with a new perspective on our own lives, fear for the lives of others, and the belief that these people really deserve better - don't they all deserve at least the basics of human dignity? While I look through the taxi window at that dirty beach, full of garbage, scattered items and the reed, the taxi driver addresses me and shocks me with his anger.

"My children haven't gone outside for five days, I don't even let my mother go to the pharmacy alone, and it's all because of them!," he almost shouted these harsh words. Completely incompatible with the tortured people I saw just a few minutes before.

Two worlds, connected at no point. And each of these worlds has its own logic and its own rights.

"I can't even walk down the street anymore, they keep walking past me, do you understand?! The government brought enough food for them, and there is no bread in the stores for us. We are abandoned in our own city! The government has abandoned us and it's scandalous," said Sara, a lady of about 50 years old, tears flowing down her face as she spoke, perhaps for the first time out loud, about the degree to which the Spaniards are left to fend for themselves in this situation.

In search of a better understanding of it, we also come across to Angela, who once worked as a journalist herself.

"Well, that's the situation we're in now, it's a wasteland because nobody's doing anything yet, because a lot of them are still coming here. I don't know when they will be deported back to their country because it's very difficult. They must meet to reach agreements, both governments, Morocco, Spain, the European Union, and it's very difficult. They (migrants) should leave now. I suspect that in the near future they will send most of the migrants back. Therefore, we are in a frightening situation, insecurity, the difficulty going out into the street. When will it be resolved? We don't know. How will it be resolved? We don't know," said Angela.

Spain caught in middle, EU on brink of new migrant crisis

While the shores of Ceuta are suffocating in waves of new arrivals, Madrid and Rome are waging a bitter battle on two fronts. A military and police at the border itself, and a diplomatic one in Brussels. The Spanish government led by Pedro Sanchez found itself in between pressure from the local authorities and the judgment of the Supreme Court which prohibits rapid expulsion of migrants arriving by sea. In order to close that legal loophole, the army has urgently set up a massive half-kilometer floating barrier on the Tarajal beach. At the same time, overcrowded reception centers testify to the fact that the system is on the verge of collapsing, while reports from humanitarian services speak of dozens of people drowning while trying to cross the breakwater.

For all of Europe, further uncontrolled penetration through these two key Mediterranean gateways turned into a direct shock to the very survival of the Schengen area. Reacting to the events in Ceuta, Italy decided to introduce extraordinary border controls affecting all flights and ships arriving from Spain, to which Madrid responded with reciprocity. The suspension of free movement between two EU members clearly shows how the crisis on the African coast is directly collapsing the foundations of the bloc. Each new wave of people arriving on the beaches of Ceuta further deepens the gap between frontline countries and the rest of the continent, permanently changing the security and political architecture of Europe.

And while the European Union is struggling to stay afloat and deal with the emerging crisis, refugees from Morocco are literally drowning in an attempt to reach Spain, and the citizens of Ceuta are suffocating with their new fellow residents in a city where fear is consuming all the oxygen.

Over the next 10 days, follow Telegraf's series of articles from Ceuta. You will read, and watch, the horrible new reality of Ceuta, the anger and pain expressed in front of our camera. For some, this city is the end of the world, for others, the beginning. We bring you the reality, from the ground, so judge for yourself which of these two realities the small exclave on the Mediterranean coast really represents.

(Telegraf.rs)