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Is the Ceuta crisis the biggest single illegal border crossing ever into the EU?

The massive migrant influx that began on Thursday could be the largest irregular crossing attempt into the EU in such a short period of time.

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/07/31/is-the-ceuta-crisis-the-biggest-single-illegal-border-crossing-ever-in-the-eu

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00:00Was the Ceuta crisis the biggest single illegal migrant crossing in EU history?
00:09The emergency is over in Ceuta, the Spanish territory bordering Morocco, and it's time to take stock.
00:16At least 80 people died in incidents during the crisis, which saw 72,000 migrants surge across the border into
00:24Spain within 48 hours.
00:26It was the largest simultaneous illegal crossing of migrants ever to happen on EU soil.
00:32Let's compare it with similar events.
00:34In 2021, 8,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco in just 48 hours.
00:41The crisis followed the row between Madrid and Rabat, after Spain hosted for medical treatment Brahim Ghali,
00:48the leader of the Western Sahara Pro-Independence Front, Polisario.
00:52Looking further into Europe, many will remember 2015's mass migration movement sparked by the Syrian civil war.
01:00Hungary was a huge transit hub, with 400,000 people passing through that year.
01:06However, even in the busiest periods, daily arrivals peaked at around 10,000 maximum, nowhere near Ceuta's numbers last week.
01:15Europe faced another huge challenge from the east in March 2020, when up to 25,000 migrants amassed along the
01:23Greek-Turkish border,
01:24after Ankara opened its checkpoints in retaliation for an attack suffered in Syria.
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