Thousands of migrants remained stranded in Spain’s North African city of Ceuta on Tuesday as the European Union offered emergency assistance to reinforce the enclave’s border and Spanish authorities investigated whether criminals or suspected jihadists used last week’s chaotic mass crossing to enter European territory.

Approximately 72,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco, and about 70,000 have since returned, Spanish officials said Tuesday, leaving roughly 2,000 people in the small territory. Reception facilities remained overwhelmed as authorities struggled to shelter hundreds of migrant minors and determine the status of those who remained.

Local authorities were processing 862 migrant minors, who receive special protections under Spanish law and cannot be summarily returned. The Associated Press reported that children were begging for food or sleeping outside after the youth shelter became overwhelmed.

SPAIN DEPLOYS MILITARY AFTER THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS OVERWHELM BORDER ENCLAVE, AT LEAST 18 DEAD

The EU offered Spain assistance, including emergency financial support, to strengthen protection of its external border in Ceuta, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said Tuesday following an emergency meeting of the bloc’s ministers in Brussels.

Brunner said the unprecedented crossing was fueled by criminal smuggling networks and disinformation spread through social media, as Spanish authorities were examining whether known criminals or suspected jihadists exploited the scale and disorder of the crossing to enter Ceuta undetected.

Spain’s National Police and Guardia Civil were reviewing video of the crossings and checking people who remained in the territory against criminal and counterterrorism databases, according to El Confidencial, which cited Spanish Interior Ministry sources.

Map depicting Spain, Morocco, and Spain’s Cueta, which borders Morocco. (2026 EarthStar Geographics, OpenMapTiles, OpenStreetMap contributors)

The Spanish outlet reported that authorities were searching for known criminals and possible jihadists who may have entered among the tens of thousands who crossed. Interior Ministry sources acknowledged that the sheer scale of the surge created a genuine infiltration risk, according to the report.

El Confidencial said the concern was heightened by Ceuta’s proximity to Fnideq, also known as Castillejos, a Moroccan border town that has figured in previous jihadist recruitment investigations. Authorities have previously dismantled extremist cells operating across the Ceuta-Fnideq border area, while hundreds of people from northern Morocco traveled to join ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq during the mid-2010s, the outlet reported.

TRUMP BLASTS SPAIN MIGRANT SURGE AS ‘CATASTROPHE,’ WARNS US COULD FACE WORSE IF DEMOCRATS REGAIN POWER

Escorted by the Spanish army, migrants who crossed into Spain return to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)

The crisis is also creating an opening for Islamist movements seeking to weaken confidence in Morocco’s government, according to Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Riboua said in an article that Moroccan Islamists have spent years portraying the monarchy as overly secular and pro-Western, attacking its relationships with the United States and Israel and encouraging the belief that young Moroccans have little future at home.

At the same time, she wrote, Islamist voices have promoted an idealized image of Europe as a place where prosperity and legal status can be easily obtained.

Riboua said the Ceuta crisis allows those movements to transform public frustration over migration, unemployment and economic conditions into a broader political attack on the Moroccan state ahead of the national elections in September.

Evidence has separately emerged that the mass crossing was preceded by an extensive online mobilization campaign.

Migrants inundating Spain’s Ceuta. (FARO DE CEUTA via AP)

An open-source intelligence report prepared by Golden Owl Intelligence traced weeks of activity across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, including misleading interpretations of Spanish immigration law and practical information about routes, meeting points and recommended crossing times.

The report estimated that the content generated more than 11 million potential impressions through posts, videos, comments and interactions. It also identified messaging groups administered through telephone numbers carrying Algerian international codes.

The campaign accelerated after Spain’s Supreme Court issued a July 8 ruling concerning the immediate return of migrants intercepted at sea near Ceuta and Melilla, according to the report. Simplified and misleading interpretations of the decision, combined with confusion surrounding Spain’s policy to regularize hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, were presented online as evidence that people who reached Spanish territory would be allowed to remain and eventually obtain legal status.

The investigation documented the later circulation of maps, swimming routes, transportation information and suggested departure points as tens of thousands of people began moving toward the border.

MIGRANT CRISIS PUSHES ITALY TO RESTORE BORDER CHECKS WITH SPAIN, TESTING EUROPE’S OPEN-BORDER SYSTEM

Migrants wait outside Ceuta’s temporary migrant center (CETI), which is currently at full capacity, following mass crossings of migrants on foot and by sea from Morocco into Spanish territory, in Ceuta, Spain, August 3, 2026. (Pedro Nunes/Reuters)

Morocco’s Interior Ministry spokesman Rachid El Khalfi said at a news conference Sunday that the surge resulted from several overlapping factors, including the exploitation of digital platforms, misleading information, human-trafficking networks and inaccurate interpretations of legal and administrative developments.

Khalfi said the messaging created the false impression that the border was open and that people could reach European territory without legal consequences. He said Moroccan prosecutors had opened investigations to identify those responsible and determine the appropriate legal consequences.

Reuters and the Associated Press have independently documented cases in which online claims influenced people to travel toward Ceuta. Reuters interviewed a Moroccan teenager who said Instagram videos inspired him and his cousin to make the journey, while a Moroccan human-rights activist told the AP that social-media posts initially claimed the border was open and later promoted a misleading interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling.

The crisis has also placed Spain’s intelligence services and its relationship with Morocco under scrutiny.

El País and Cadena SER reported, citing officials familiar with Spain’s intelligence assessment, that Morocco did not plan the mass crossing but allowed it to unfold after border controls were gradually relaxed.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Spain’s foreign intelligence agency had not warned him of an imminent surge of that magnitude.

WHITE HOUSE BLASTS SPANISH GOVERNMENT AS THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS SURGE FROM MOROCCO, EMERGENCY REQUEST DENIED

Moroccan security forces clash with migrants attempting to cross into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta near the town of Fnideq, on the Morocco-Spain border, on July 31, 2026. (Abdel Majid Bziouat / AFP via Getty Images)

Morocco has denied deliberately orchestrating the crossing. Interior Ministry spokesman Rachid Khalfi blamed the surge on online misinformation, human-trafficking networks and distorted interpretations of Spanish legal and administrative developments, according to The Jerusalem Post. The ministry said Morocco remained committed to international cooperation against irregular migration and human trafficking.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares defended Rabat’s response, saying Moroccan authorities quickly provided police support and helped facilitate the return of most of those who crossed.

Juan Jesus Vivas Lara, president of the autonomous city of Ceuta, offered a sharply different assessment, telling El País that many Ceuta residents believed Morocco had allowed, if not orchestrated, the surge.

«Morocco has shown us that it isn’t reliable,» Vivas said. «There’s no alternative but to put in place whatever means are necessary to ensure it cannot do this again.»

Migrants wait outside Ceuta’s temporary migrant center (CETI), which is currently at full capacity, following mass crossings of migrants on foot and by sea from Morocco into Spanish territory, in Ceuta, Spain, August 3, 2026. (Pedro Nunes/Reuters)

Fox News Digital reached out to the Moroccan government for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Cambio

Migrantes que llegan a la frontera entre Eslovenia y Croacia en 2015. Los recuerdos de la crisis migratoria de 2015 siguen marcando la política en Europa. Foto Sergey Ponomarev para The New York Times

Postura

El líder del partido británico Reform UK, Nigel Farage, sostiene un folleto en el que se lee «Operación Fortaleza: Detener la invasión de Gran Bretaña» mientras habla durante una conferencia de prensa junto al portavoz de asuntos internos del partido, Zia Yusuf, en Londres, Gran Bretaña, el 3 de agosto de 2026. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Capitol Hill staffers typically rely on private conversations and faceless social media accounts to identify toxic offices — but a new platform is offering a verified place to anonymously rate and review members of Congress and the workplaces they run.

Capitol CNCT, a program designed to centralize resources for congressional staffers, launched on July 20 a new tool called «The Scoop,» where verified staffers can share anonymous, but verified, reviews of the offices where they’re employed.

Former staffer David Tennent told Fox News Digital he founded Capitol CNCT to modernize the experience for young people working in congressional offices in Washington, D.C. He said the idea of the new ranking system emerged due to growing frustration over the number of ‘bad bosses’ and ‘toxic offices’ in the halls of Congress.

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«I wanted to create something that gave a little bit more transparency to the process and help staffers find the best opportunities available,» he said in an interview detailing his inspiration for the new tool.

Just a week after launch, verified reviews are already beginning to paint an early picture of workplace culture across Capitol Hill.

While most offices still have only a handful of ratings, the highest-rated House offices among them so far are Reps. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., Brendan Boyle, D-Penn., Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, and Robert Garcia, D-Calif.

Among Senate offices, the top five were Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Todd Young, R-Ind., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Eric Schmitt, R-Miss., and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

Across both chambers, the five lowest-rated offices were Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

The offices of Davis, Krishnamoorthi, Brownley, Van Hollen and Bennet did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on their rankings.

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There is no centralized human resources department for members’ offices on the Hill — making it tricky for staffers to report toxic or abusive workplaces.

«The Scoop» aims to offer a reliable place where people can leave and review feedback from staff who have gone through a verification process, which ensures anyone leaving a review actually works in the office they are rating.

«We verify the office in which they’ve worked,» Tennent told Fox News Digital. «We sift through all reviews before they go live to our platform to make sure that staffer has actually worked in that office.»

House lawmakers sit in the chamber on Capitol Hill. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Reviews are only published if the user leaving feedback passes Capitol CNCT’s background screening to ensure they have at some point worked for the member of Congress they are commenting on. The process includes verifying House and Senate email addresses attached to the account are legitimate.

«My biggest fear was just creating like a political retribution platform, right?» Tennent explained. «Where you can just go on and destroy people without any evidence or verification that you’ve been a part of that process.»

Tennent revealed that Republican offices are almost twice as likely to be reviewed than Democrats’ offices so far.

The launch last month comes amid heightened scrutiny of workplace culture on Capitol Hill after multiple offices faced misconduct allegations this year.

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Many members of Congress have either resigned or been under fire this year for allegations of inappropriate behavior with members of their staff.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, both resigned in April after staffers from their offices came forward with accusations of sexual misconduct — including rape accusations against Swalwell.

«We happened to be able to launch it right in this timeframe where this congressional ethics or lack of morality discussion is really hitting its high pitch,» Tennent said.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) speaks alongside Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) during a news conference on the introduction of their Protection from Abusive Passengers Act at the U.S. Capitol Building on April 06, 2022 in Washington, DC. Swalwell and Reed’s legislation is designed to improve air safety, increase traveler protections, reduce in-flight violence and hold unruly passengers accountable if they assault flight attendants and airline crew members. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Tennent said that while the main purpose of the app is to give staffers, or those considering working on the Hill, verifiable reviews about what it is like working for certain members of Congress, he also hopes it will serve as constructive criticism for members and their offices «to create a better working Congress.»

«We do want to provide like constructive criticism in this process,» Tennent said

He continued, «Our hope is that if a chief of staff or a member sees that their office is very poorly rated, that over time they’re gonna go, ‘Oh, this is a wake-up call for me. Let me implement some strategies to boost office morale, to change how we communicate with each other . ’»