Misleading images and videos circulate about Ceuta situation

Social media is awash with videos purporting to show the "horror in Spain" and the "overwhelming" of Ceuta, but many of these images are misleading, outdated, or originate from elsewhere.

A widely shared compilation video, viewed over 4 million times on X, claims to depict chaos in Ceuta. However, VRT NWS fact-checking reveals that while some footage is recent and from the region, other clips are from Morocco or are unrelated to the current events. For instance, scenes of rioting and burning vehicles are not from Ceuta but from Beni Ansar, a Moroccan border town near Melilla. Geolocalization and identification of Moroccan police vehicles confirm the origin of these clips.

Another video, showing a border guard throwing a stone at someone returning to Morocco from Ceuta, is genuine. However, a sharp accompanying photograph of the incident has been identified as AI-generated. Similarly, a video depicting a train station "overwhelmed by travelers" was filmed in Kenitra, Morocco, not Spain, with passengers reportedly trying to board a train to Ceuta.

These misrepresentations come as Ceuta grapples with the aftermath of tens of thousands of migrants crossing from Morocco. While an estimated 2,000 to 8,000 people remain in the Spanish enclave, many social media narratives distort the reality with fabricated or irrelevant imagery. This includes older footage of boats arriving on the Spanish coast, previously fact-checked by VRT NWS in 2023.