The tragedy of those who perished trying to make the crossing to Ceuta from Morocco, and who were heroes of the north in Spain’s North African territory, was one of the starkest reminders of how poorly the world has done in the area of migration in a way that is both humane and compassionate. The chaotic scene, with people drowning, tramping, crushing in distress, should be a nightmare for all policymakers across Europe and around the world. But it is important the tragedy doesn’t become just another day in the news cycle, another statistic unless we address the institutional failures that made this tragedy inevitable.

The Ceuta incident was not an accident, but a failure in a system. Thousands of migrants—including many from West Africa seeking a better life and a safe haven from poverty and violence tried to storm the border in a single coordinated surge. With dozens dying en route, Spanish authorities were caught off-guard and completely inundated, and were forced to act as gatekeepers. In the wake of the event, most migrants were simply repatriated to Morocco, a step that doesn’t resolve any of the causes and does little to prevent future calamities.

Humanitarian groups

It is not that this tragedy is unique, but that it is predictable. Humanitarian groups for years have said the situation at the border crossings, such as Ceuta, was unsustainable. Poorly staffed and inadequately resourced processing centres, inadequate social services, and the desperation of those without any other choice makes for a ticking bomb waiting to go off. If thousands of migrants come together and they know that they have nothing to lose by crossing, then the tragedy is not a question, it’s a fact.

European Union’s policy

The European Union’s policy towards migration has been shaped too long by a mindset based on security rather than humanitarianism and the view of migrants as a problem to be solved. Fortress walls, detention facilities and rapid deportations are not solutions to migration causes for certain groups of political opinion. No one takes a tramp out of their home lightly. They run away due to war, famine, persecution, or total economic failure. These facts remain the same even with the construction of higher walls the only thing that changes is the urgency to break these walls down.

Moral responsibility

A hard question to ask is what is our moral responsibility to those seeking refuge? The wealthier Spain, an EU Member State, has the capacity to process migrants in a humane manner, to conduct a reliable evaluation of asylum claims and to accommodate migrants for the duration of their asylum processing. Instead, it found itself in the position of turning away the desperate with tragic consequences. It’s not a fault of Spain, it’s a fault of Europe.

But at the same time we need to recognise the real problems of migration. Communities that experience high rates of migration are experiencing a significant strain in the areas of housing, employment and services. These issues are not a product of xenophobia, but are worthy of the serious consideration. The error is not in recognising these difficulties but in letting them permeate fundamental human rights.

How do we fix this?

1. 1.First, Europe needs to spend money on legal migration routes. Existing asylum systems are intentionally complex and hard to navigate, with hardly any options but to take illegal paths. Orderly and transparent processes would help to minimize the temptation to cross illegally and the confusion at borders.

• Second, affluent countries need to look at the environment that motivates people to migrate. This will call for foreign assistance to conflict resolution, economic development, and good governance in the origin countries. It must provide assistance to the refugee camps in the surrounding areas instead of forcing all the displaced individuals to come to Europe. It involves understanding that responsibility for international crises do not halt at any national boundaries.

• Third, there has to be a system of burden sharing between countries in place instead of the present one where some countries, such as Spain and Greece, have to take a disproportionate burden. A fairer and more sustainable (and kinder) migration policy in Europe would distribute migrants and resources fairly, rather than relying on buffer zones in the periphery.

• 4.Last but not least, political leaders should refrain from playing politics with migration. Stir in hardline rhetoric regarding invasions and border invasions and you can stir up some voters, but you can also dehumanize migrants and make compromise impossible. A well-functioning political culture would accept the reality of migration as a challenge yet recognize that migration’s challenges can be handled humanely.

The deaths in Ceuta are symptomatic of the absence of border management and more than that they are a failure of political imagination. We’ve been so used to viewing migration as a security concern that we have lost sight of it being a human rights concern as well. Each person who drowned trying to cross a border, each family separated by deportation, each child held in a detention center is a failure of conscience.

This isn’t a call for open borders or for disregarding any valid security issues. Instead, a call for policies that strike the balance between humanity and practicality, policies which treat migrants as people and not abstracts, policies which seek to address the root causes instead of managing symptoms.

The migrants who rushed to Ceuta were the people who were looking for a better life and so were our ancestors who went when they migrated. More realistic and humane ways to handle immigration are possible but they will require a rejection of the failed fortress mentality that has lead to the tragedy of Ceuta. Until we do, we’ll see more deaths, more statistics, more reminders of our own moral culpability that we haven’t made something of our live values.

The question Before Europe is simple: to move forward the current trajectory of deterrence-to-despair, or to invest in the development of a migration system that is aware of our limits and our responsibility. The tragedy at Ceuta puts us in a position where we can no longer make wrong choices.

Reference

Source: CBS News
Date: August 1-3, 2026
URL: https://www.cbsnews.com/

  Mirza Ahsan Bilal,Umm-e-Rubab

Lecturer at University of Lahore in School of integrated Social sciences

Umm –e-Rubab Student of Manchester adult learning center greenheyes. UK.