Christianity Today August 14, 2026 7 min signal 2026-08-14

80,000 migrants came and went. Ceuta pastors keep serving.

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Christianity Today

August 14, 2026

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Adri Salido / Stringer / Getty

When Juan García awoke on the morning of Friday, July 31, and looked out his window, he saw hundreds of migrants seeking relief from the sweltering heat in a public fountain that separates his home from that of fellow pastor Javier Santolaria across the street.

In two days, an unprecedented 80,000 migrants descended on Ceuta, a seven-square-mile Spanish city on the northern edge of Morocco with a population of 84,000. Thousands swam the short distance from Morocco, while thousands of others came in large groups across the land border. At least 141 migrants died during the crossing.

Young men filled the streets desperately seeking food and water. García, pastor of the Bethel Church, heard that the migrants mobbed two vans belonging to a nonprofit carrying humanitarian supplies. Most locals stayed indoors and kept their businesses closed.

Santolaria noted that while many wanted to help, it was too dangerous. He said that if someone came out with food and water, 200 people would appear. “First of all, your safety is at risk—and not just yours but theirs too—because fights break out.”

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The news made headlines around the world, with anti-immigration politicians and pundits seizing on the images of migrants crowding Ceuta’s shores to criticize Spain’s leftist immigration policies. By late Friday, most of the migrants had returned to Morocco. Currently, up to 10,000 migrants remain in the city, according to Ceuta’s mayor.

For local pastors like García and Santolaria, the slow work of serving their community at the crossroads of Africa and Europe continues even after the cameras move on. They share the gospel with people from around the world who end up in Ceuta and minister to those struggling with drug addictions.

Following Ceuta authorities’ calls for caution, Santolaria’s church, Iglesia de Dios, Casa de Alabanza Church, held its service on Zoom that Sunday.

“One of the things I really encouraged the church to do was, first and foremost, to turn their faces to the Lord,” he said. “The church in times of crisis needs wisdom to act, prudence to live, and compassion to serve.”

The misreading of a recent immigration ruling spread widely on social media prompted the extraordinary migration wave. Spain’s government has laxer immigration policy than other European countries: Earlier this year, it launched a plan to offer legal one-year residence and work permits to illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for at least five months.

Rumors spread online that a June Spanish Supreme Court ruling would allow migrants who arrived illegally by sea to stay in the country. Millions of posts on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, and Telegram spread the disinformation. A viral trend known as Haraga portrayed the dangerous journey as an adventure or feat of courage. Social media accounts—including some belonging to human traffickers—circulated maps, routes, crossing points, and practical advice for swimming across the border.

In reality, the Supreme Court ruling amends Spanish immigration law, stating that people who arrive in the country illegally by sea can’t be deported without due process just because they didn’t cross a physical border infrastructure.

“The idea is to facilitate the work of the police, but it doesn’t mean these people can stay in Ceuta,” Gemma Pinyol-Jiménez, head of migration policies and diversity at the consultant and research firm Instrategies told CNN.

García said he supports legal immigration. His wife, Eréndida, is Mexican, giving the issue a personal dimension for him.

“For me, immigration needs to be somewhat controlled—to know who the people entering are, how they are entering, and what their needs are,” he said.

Santolaria agreed that what they experienced two weeks ago was an “invasion.”

“When something is not authorized by the authorities, even if people are coming with a legitimate purpose—to improve their lives—it is a type of invasion,” García said.

Pastor Martin Merki, who has led the International Christian Church (ICC) in Ceuta for 33 years, said that while migrants are often arriving in his city, the recent influx was unprecedented. The previous major wave occurred in May 2021, when around 10,000 people crossed the border.

In the past, many migrants come from sub-Saharan Africa, while now they are primarily from Morocco and Algeria, Merki noted. Young Moroccans aged 15 to 24 face a high unemployment rate of 37 percent, leading them to seek a better future in Europe.

Merki’s church is located just a few meters from the city’s migrant reception center. Most of the migrants he encounters are Muslim men between the ages of 18 and 25 with little formal education. They typically spend between one and six months in the center before being allowed to cross the sea to mainland Spain to work in construction or farming. Minors are generally placed in the care of nonprofits.

Merki recalls recently meeting a 22-year-old tailor from war-torn Sudan whose two young siblings remain in a refugee camp in the country.

The young man had traveled through Chad, Niger, Algeria, and Morocco before crossing into Ceuta. He climbed over a double fence 19 feet high to enter the city. Later, he joined a group of young people who came to the ICC to learn English.

“We read Bible passages with him in English and Arabic,” Merki recalled. “He began to understand that God had provided a solution to the sin that holds us captive and that this solution can be found by reading the Bible.”

The young man left Ceuta for mainland Europe a week ago.

Ceuta’s location as one of only two European Union land borders with Africa (along with the Spanish exclave of Melilla) also makes it a major entry point for hashish, a concentrated cannabis product. In March, police uncovered a massive drug-smuggling tunnel with a rail system and underground cranes.

García said that since the pandemic, homelessness has become more visible on Ceuta’s streets, along with young people addicted to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, tobacco, and hashish.

Since 1999, García has run a drug rehab ministry in his church. Over the decades, he has helped rehabilitate hundreds of people struggling with addiction. He follows a method created by Elliott Tepper, an American missionary and founder of Spain’s Betel International churches, that involves weaning them off drugs by providing shelter and food, teaching them work skills, and guiding them toward faith in Jesus. García says the church serves people regardless of their background.

“We have never shown partiality toward anyone,” he said, adding that many Muslim Moroccan families have sent their children to his church’s ministry.

Despite the challenges, Ceuta’s Christians remain encouraged by the fruit that their seeds of faith have borne.

Merki remembers back in 1992 when one Moroccan man from the mountainous Rif region helped build the roof of his home.

The man asked Merki questions about Jesus – was he prophet or God? The man was addicted to tobacco and marijuana, but something about the Christian message captured his attention—particularly Jesus’ description of himself as a shepherd, Merki said.

“He was struck by the fact that Jesus Christ compared himself to a shepherd of sheep and that God offered love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and security,” Merki said.

The man eventually chose to follow Christ. One day, the man invited Merki and his wife to his home. On the wall hung a painting that captured what his new faith meant to him: the Good Shepherd carrying on his shoulders the lost sheep he had found.

“He wanted to be a sheep of this Good Shepherd, regardless of what his friends and family might say,” Merki recalled. “God freed him from his addictions.”

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