Migrants sit on rocks Friday after swimming through the waters close to the border with Morocco to enter Spain’s north Africa’s Ceuta enclave. Tens of thousands of migrants crossed overnight from Morocco into Ceuta, a territory with a population of about 80,000, a police source said. (Jorge Guerrero – AFP / Getty Images)
By Samuel Short July 31, 2026 at 4:47pm
Thursday’s invasion of Ceuta, Spain, by tens of thousands of Moroccans provided a stark warning to the rest of Europe when one man was interviewed about the horde’s intentions.
CBS News’ international reporter, Aiden Stretch, was on the scene, speaking to a Moroccan man to gain some insight about why he and so many others opted to leave their home country and choose Spain.
“Why did you want to move to Spain in general?” Stretch asked.
“Every Moroccan, they want to go to Europe,” the man told him. “Morocco is good. Morocco is a beautiful country, but you need to [have] a lot of money and you can’t make money in Morocco.
“To live is too hard. It’s not bad, but it’s too hard. If you go to Spain, you’re going to have all that you want.”
More than 37,500 migrants have returned to Morocco after an estimated 60,000 crossed into Spain’s Ceuta enclave this week. The rush turned deadly, with some migrants drowning as they tried to swim to the territory. CBS News’ @aidan_stretch spoke with one migrant about why he… pic.twitter.com/KqBBXhhiOH
— CBS News (@CBSNews) July 31, 2026
Is it too late for Europe?
If even partially accurate, it’s a warning Europe must heed if Moroccans are seeking out their continent.
Census.gov puts Morocco’s population at 38 million.
According to travel guide My Visit Morocco, over 99 percent of the country is Islamic. The footage coming out of the events of Thursday and Friday indicated the invasion was almost entirely young men.
In other words, young Muslim men have a desire to migrate to Europe.
They are not alone. Millions of young Muslim men across North Africa and the Middle East likely have the same goal.
A separate report from CBS noted that 25,000 of these Moroccans have been sent back. This was an invasion, but we cannot appropriately use that language to describe what’s happening in places like England, France, and Germany.
It is not an invasion; it is an invitation.
These people are invited by naive policymakers and a suicidally empathetic public.
In October of the year 732 A.D., the Franks, led by Charles Martel, overcame invading Muslim armies in France at the Battle of Tours, as Islam had already swept across the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain.
It was only a century after the death of Islam’s prophet Muhammad, but his followers quickly invaded those regions, raping, murdering, pillaging, and subjugating those they encountered.
Tours was critical in stopping Islam’s barbarity from further harming Christian people.
The idea that Europe could sternly, heroically oppose Islamic hordes is part of a bygone era.
Today’s invaders do not need weapons when Europeans happily welcome them in.
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Sam Short is an Assistant Professor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
