Ceuta
crisis forces Europe’s migrant-rights groups to rethink their playbook
The old
appeals to solidarity are no longer working.
Spanish
national police officers stand as migrants wait during a distribution of food
by volunteers at an industrial site in Ceuta on Sept. 2, 2026. | Antonio
Sempere/AFP via Getty Images
September
8, 2026 4:00 am CET
BRUSSELS
— The political reaction to the surge of migrants into the Spanish exclave of
Ceuta laid bare how sharply Europe’s migration debate has shifted, and how it’s
forcing migrant-rights groups to rethink the way they make their case.
Where
previous migration crises often divided European leaders between calls for
solidarity and demands for tougher controls, the response to Ceuta — where more
than 100 people died last month as they tried to enter — was strikingly
uniform.
From the
far right to the center left, political leaders overwhelmingly called for
stronger borders and more effective deterrence.
“The
conversation around migration and the language used to refer to migrants has
changed in many EU countries, even center-left member states,” said Michele
LeVoy, director of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented
Migrants, a network of organizations that advocate for unauthorized migrants
across Europe.
In
response, migrant-rights groups are changing tactics. As humanitarian appeals
lose political traction, they are turning more heavily to the courts, building
broader alliances and experimenting with new ways to talk about migration.
“We’re
trying to be stronger together by working with organizations from across civil
society, working with lawyers to challenge litigation, and really showing that
these policies are bad for everyone, not just migrants,” LeVoy added.
From
rescue to deterrence
In 2013,
the death of hundreds of migrants in a shipwreck off the Italian island of
Lampedusa shocked the continent.
Top EU
officials, including then-Commission President José Manuel Barroso, traveled to
the site to declare that
“the European Union cannot accept that thousands of people die at its borders.”
The
bloc’s then-Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström called for a “change of
approach towards migration,” adding that “this restrictive approach is not
sustainable and that it is now time to move towards more openness and
solidarity.”
The 2015
refugee crisis initially generated a similarly humanitarian reaction, with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling on Europeans to welcome
more than 1 million people fleeing war in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The European Commission sought to manage the crisis through measures including
the redistribution of asylum seekers among EU countries.
But that
approach ran into resistance from figures like then-Hungarian Prime Minister
Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Law and Justice party.
Florian
Trauner, an expert on EU migration at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the
College of Europe, said a handful of right-wing politicians succeeded in
establishing an “institutional deadlock” that halted
EU efforts to integrate migrants and allowed for a “wider shift to a
more restrictive, control-oriented approach to migration.”
That
evolution is visible in the EU’s response to Ceuta. Center-left figures like
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen echoed right-wing Italian Prime
Minister Giorgia Meloni’s call for
a more robust defense of the bloc’s external borders, and twenty-two EU leaders
signed onto a letter demanding
a coordinated effort to “deter and relentlessly combat illegal
migration.”
European
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen likewise stressed that
“control of our European borders matters.” Without mentioning the rising death
toll, she instead celebrated the fact that “not a single person reached
mainland Spain or the rest of the EU.”
The
far-right factor
The
bloc’s shift on migration has been accelerated by the rise of far-right parties
and a scramble by centrist rivals to neutralize them by embracing parts of
their agenda.
“The
buffer zone that once separated the democratic right from the far right has
effectively disappeared,” said Estrella Galán, a European Parliament lawmaker
with the far-left Left group who is the shadow rapporteur on the EU’s return
regulation.
As
hard-line positions have gone mainstream, the far-right has started to push for
further measures, including “remigration” — the removal of immigrants from
Europe.
“As their
policies have become widely accepted, the far-right groups have moved further
and further right on other issues,” said Trauner.
The Trump
administration’s approach to migration — including large-scale deportations —
“has given legitimacy to European actors who have been able to reject criticism
by pointing out that the world’s major international power is embracing the
exact same position,” Trauner said.
Helena
Maleno, spokesperson for Caminando Fronteras, an NGO that defends migrants’
rights along the western Euro-African border, said her group was increasingly
being targeted by the far right.
“There is
a total dehumanization of migrants, especially if they’re Muslims,” she said.
“We have had to reinforce protection and security — from digital attacks, but
also from threats to our physical safety.”
The far
right, however, argues that migrant-rights groups have not lost influence — and
still have too much of it.
“I wish
we could speak of the failure of pro-immigration NGOs, but what happened in
Ceuta proves they have not failed,” said Jorge Buxadé, a European Parliament
lawmaker from Spain’s Vox party.
He
accused migrants’ rights groups of being “21st-century pirates” who use “hybrid
warfare” to undermine Spain’s territorial integrity.
“Billions
of euros every year go toward funding the structure and influence of
organizations whose sole interest is ensuring that immigration to Europe
remains massive and uncontrolled,” he said.
Change in
tactics
In the
new climate, the humanitarian argument traditionally used by rights groups —
that migrants are human beings in need of protection — no longer carries the
same political weight, said LeVoy.
Increasingly,
NGOs have found themselves on the defensive, fighting criminal sanctions and
restrictions on their activities rather than shaping the broader debate.
That
pressure is pushing migrant-rights groups to rethink where — and how — they
fight.
One
response is to take the battle into the courts, investing resources in legal
challenges to restrictive legislation, including EU rules governing returns and
the criminalization of assistance to undocumented migrants.
Migrant-rights
groups are also seeking to broaden their alliances. In Spain, the recent push
to grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of unauthorized migrants was
backed by support from the country’s conservative employers’ association and
the Catholic
Church.
“It’s
more important than ever to be in strong coalitions,” LeVoy said. Her group is
also reaching out to local authorities, health professionals and housing
organizations.
LeVoy
advocated for shifting the narrative on migration by focusing less on dangerous
sea crossings or dramatic border surges. Instead, she argued, rights groups
should highlight the much larger population of unauthorized migrants already
living alongside Europeans.
She
likened the strategy to that of successful campaigns for marriage equality, which sought to change
public perceptions by presenting LGBTQ+ people not as an abstract political
constituency but as friends, colleagues and neighbors.
“Borders
are really a very small part of this issue, because the overwhelming majority
[of Europe’s unauthorized migrants] come in regularly,” LeVoy said.
Caminando
Fronteras has likewise reinforced its legal work and security measures and
built transnational networks with other rights groups.
But
Maleno said her NGO was also staying true to its long-standing commitment to
amplify the voices of families whose relatives have died or disappeared at
Europe’s borders.
“We will
continue to work to make the public administrations listen,” she said. “Europe
will one day have to account for all those deaths and disappearances.”
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