Ceuta Marks New Frontier for Migration-Driven Hybrid Geopolitical Threats

Ceuta is a tiny piece of Spain that sits on the coast of Africa, right next to the country of Morocco.

It is one of the only places in the world where Europe and Africa are connected by land.

Sometimes, lots of people travel there from Africa hoping to get into Europe.

In May 2021, more than 10,000 people, many of them children, arrived in just two days.

Later, around 60,000 people came at once, and Spain needed its Army to help calm things down.

Many leaders believe the big rush of people was not an accident.

Morocco was upset because Spain let a man named Brahim Ghali visit for medical reasons, so Morocco loosened its border checks and let many people cross.

That turned migration into a kind of tool that countries can use to put pressure on each other.

European countries do not agree on what to do: some want to be kind and share the work, while others want much stronger borders.

People around the world are watching because the movement of people can change politics just as much as wars can.