Does a video show a guard in Morocco opening a border fence located at Ceuta, a Spanish territory, in July 2026? No, that's not true: The footage was posted online in 2021. According to a Spanish police union, it does show Moroccan people crossing into Ceuta.
The claim appeared in a post by @alberto_hispanista on Instagram on July 31, 2026 (archived here). The post included a caption in Spanish. Using Instagram's "See translation" feature, the caption in English read:
🚨🇪🇸 This is how they recorded a Moroccan guard opening the border fence.
Images circulated online show a Moroccan agent opening a passage on the Ceuta border as numerous migrants head towards Spanish territory.
The video has reignited the debate over border control and recalls episodes like the 2021 Ceuta migration crisis, when thousands of people crossed the border in a short period of time.
💬 What measures do you think should be taken to strengthen border control and manage this situation?
#Ceuta #Frontera #Inmigración #Marruecos #España
This is what a screenshot from the video included in the post looked like:
(Image source: screenshot from post by @alberto_hispanista on Instagram.)
The autonomous Spanish territory of Ceuta (archived here) has repeatedly drawn attention for immigration-related incidents. In 2021, several thousand Moroccans crossed into Ceuta following "diplomatic tension" between the two countries (archived here). In July 2026, the site was in the news again (archived here), with tens of thousands of people crossing into Ceuta and dozens of people dying in the migration process. However, many of the people who crossed returned to Morocco.
A Google Image search (archived here) of a still from the video generated several results, including an article from the Spanish outlet El País published on May 18, 2021, that includes the same footage (archived here). According to the article, the footage was posted on a social media account of the Sindicato Unificado de Policía, known as the Unified Police Union in English.
A search of the official account of the union on X showed the footage in a post made on May 18, 2021 (archived here). The caption of the footage, as translated from Spanish to English by Grok, read:
😡There's the Moroccan border control of #Marruecos that allows the #InvasionCeuta to happen with impunity.
What does
@desdelamoncloa
and Europe have to say about this?
Our #compañeros once again suffer the #DesamparoInstitucional by letting the staff of #Ceuta and #Melilla dwindle away.
Thus, while the footage concerns immigration between Morocco and Spain, it does not show an event from July 2026.
