Spain's socialist PM blasted for jetting off on holiday despite thousands of migrants REFUSING to leave Ceuta

Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has jetted off on holiday, despite thousands of migrants refusing to leave Ceuta.

Mr Sánchez touched down at an official residence in Lanzarote to begin a two-week-long summer break with his wife, despite the situation in Ceuta continuing to unfold.

The Spanish PM provoked further outrage by posting a playlist of his favourite tracks on social media, featuring Madonna's "I Feel So Free" alongside songs by Charli XCX and the Rolling Stones.

Opposition politicians rounded on him for what they described as a callous display of indifference.

Carmen Fúnez, an MP for conservative party PP, said: "While Ceuta suffers, Sanchez is on vacation. There is nothing crueller than denying reality."

Other members of the opposition accused the premier of refusing to acknowledge the scale of the crisis, with hundreds of migrants still stranded in the Spanish enclave and bodies continuing to wash ashore.

The crisis in Ceuta showed no sign of abating today, with thousands of migrants still occupying the Spanish territory after what authorities described as the largest illegall border crossing in the enclave's history.

Between 50,000 and 60,000 people from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa had surged into the territory on Thursday and Friday, reportedly with the tacit cooperation of Moroccan authorities.

Although the overwhelming majority were subsequently driven back across the frontier by Spanish forces, significant numbers refused to leave, sleeping on beaches and concealing themselves in tunnels and undergrowth.

The death toll stands at 75, according to Spanish authorities, with most victims having drowned whilst attempting to swim around a border fence extending into the Mediterranean.

Among those who remained were large numbers of unaccompanied minors, many of whom had taken shelter in a disused industrial estate.

Teenagers wandered between derelict warehouses, reporting that they had barely eaten in four days.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Spain installs floating barrier in Ceuta to keep Africans out amid migrant 'invasion'
• Dougie Beattie provides update from Ceuta after GB News crew accosted by migrants: ‘Getting quite scary!'
• People smugglers SLASH prices to exploit crisis and get small boat migrants across the Channel into Britain

One boy sleeping on flattened cardboard amid piles of rubbish told reporters he was 14 and had entered Ceuta without any accompanying adults.

Others washed themselves using water from a hosepipe.

The presence of so many children posed a significant legal obstacle to Spain's efforts to clear the remaining migrants from Ceuta.

Under Spanish law, any undocumented minor travelling without an adult must be referred to child protection services, with courts ultimately determining whether repatriation is permissible.

Immigration lawyers warned that sending children back without following proper procedures risked breaching both domestic legislation and Spain's commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Nevertheless, reporters observed police transporting migrants, including minors, to the border gate leading into Morocco.

Spain operates under controversial 2015 legislation permitting the immediate expulsion of migrants arriving in Ceuta or Melilla without allowing them to lodge asylum claims — a practice known elsewhere in Europe as "pushbacks."

To prevent further crossings, authorities had also deployed a 500-metre floating barrier around Ceuta's maritime frontier.

Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter