Nick Shirley went into Ceuta with a camera while the Spanish enclave was still dealing with the aftermath of an almost unimaginable border breach.

Then the story turned on him.

New footage posted Monday shows the independent journalist and his crew scrambling through city streets as men chase them, shout at them and hurl objects in their direction.

One pursuer is subtitled threatening to stab them. Shirley can be heard warning that a man has a knife before the group reaches a Spanish police vehicle.

WLTReport could not independently determine from the fast-moving footage whether the object Shirley identified was a knife. But the chase, threats, thrown objects and police presence are all visible in the clip.

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That terrifying sequence came days after roughly 60,000 people crossed from Morocco into Ceuta in an extraordinary rush by land and sea.

The Associated Press reported that most of those migrants had returned to Morocco by Sunday, while others remained hidden in the hills around the tiny Spanish territory.

Spanish authorities were still searching nearby waters for bodies after the crossing. Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast, is one of the European Union’s most sensitive external border points.

The numbers help explain the scale: a city of about 85,000 people absorbed a sudden human wave approaching three-quarters of its own population.

Shirley’s full report runs nearly 29 minutes. It shows him interviewing migrants, walking through parts of the city and trying to document where people intended to go next.

MAGA Voice reposted that longer report Monday afternoon:

Shirley claimed Moroccan authorities allowed people through and that Spain opened its gates as the rush unfolded. Those are his on-the-ground assertions, not independently established facts.

What is established is that the surge overwhelmed Ceuta’s normal reception capacity and left thousands still requiring shelter, supervision or repatriation.

A second Associated Press report said an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 migrants remained in Ceuta on Monday, with children making up a substantial share of that group.

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The city’s main migrant center, built for about 600 people, was full. Others were sleeping on beaches or in the hills as officials tried to determine who could remain and who would return to Morocco.

That reporting adds important context to the images. The original mass crossing had largely subsided, but the pressure inside Ceuta was far from over.

Another clip from Shirley’s report shows men listing destinations across Europe when asked where they planned to go.

The answers included Madrid, Barcelona, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Romania and even Russia.

That does not mean every person who entered Ceuta had the same plan. It does show why the crisis cannot be treated as a local Spanish problem that ends at the enclave’s shoreline.

Ceuta is the entry point. Mainland Europe is the destination for many who make it through.

And Shirley’s video captures the danger of trying to report in the middle of that disorder without the protection of a large news organization or security detail.

The footage deserves to be watched carefully and described honestly. It shows a journalist chased through the streets, threatened, pelted with objects and ultimately escorted by police.

Whatever politicians call the situation, that is not a border under control.

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This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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