British summertime has its traditions, some delightful, others not so good. Tennis at Wimbledon is a delight. Not so welcome is the newer tradition of summer water shortages and bans on using hosepipes in gardens as a result of dry weather.
Another weather-related tradition is calm summer seas. That means on the English coast, we expect the annual increase in small boats of migrants crossing from France. Summer is, therefore, also the time that anti-migrant groups stage their own traditional demonstrations and some thugs among them resort to violence.
In the past few days, anti-migrant protesters disturbed the peace in the English market town of Thetford in Norfolk, chanting “we want them out” and attempting to break into accommodation for those believed to be asylum seekers. A police officer was reported to have been “seriously bitten” in the disorder. At least 15 arrests were made, although Britain is far from alone in dealing with the potential for civil unrest, public unease and a political backlash about migrants this summer.
The case of Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the North African coast, is the most obvious example, with political repercussions shaking European capitals from Madrid to Rome, Copenhagen and elsewhere. About 72,000 people – some estimates say more – crossed the heavily fortified border into Ceuta from Morocco, apparently seeking to get to Europe. The potential migrants risked their lives by swimming round the coast or by trying to climb formidable fences separating Morocco from Spanish territory.
It’s not clear what caused this rush, but the resulting diplomatic and humanitarian crisis affected everything from planned friendly football matches to EU cohesion. The Spanish football club Barcelona cancelled its pre-season warm-up match in Morocco with IR Tangier.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticised Spain’s handling of the territorial invasion. Ms Meloni’s government introduced a temporary border clampdown in the hope of preventing migrants who reach Spain from turning up in Italy without border checks. Under the EU’s Schengen agreement, there is generally freedom of movement across EU borders.
At the EU leaders’ summit in June, Ms Meloni also criticised the Madrid government for allowing half a million undocumented migrants to stay in Spain with – in theory – the possibility that they could move across unchecked borders to any other Schengen area country. Spain, meanwhile, criticised Italy for failing to curb irregular migration “with figures that have reached double those of Spain”.
Beyond this unfortunate diplomatic spat, Spanish Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska said that 70,000 of the 72,000 migrants who reached Ceuta were sent back to Morocco.
It’s not clear what happened to the other 2,000 or so who presumably may remain on Spanish territory. Some children are reported to have been sent to the Spanish mainland and an estimated 75 migrants may have drowned in the sea.
What is clear is that migration often increases in summer – and from England’s small-town of Thetford to great European capitals – it has profoundly changed European politics.
During a migration crisis in 2015, European governments – most notably Germany – broadly welcomed more than a million displaced people. Then-German chancellor Angela Merkel famously said “Wir schaffen das!” – or “we can do it”. Nowadays we cannot do it, apparently.
Politics across Europe has changed in line with public opinion. The left-of-centre Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, has significantly tightened her country’s asylum seeker policy. Anti-migrant fears among voters have pushed even traditionally centrist European political parties to embrace some of the ideas and restrictions previously popularised by those on the right or far right.
Washington’s Migration Policy Institute noted that anti-migrant unrest across Europe and “vigilantism” rose during the 2015-2016 refugee crisis, and in the past two years these factors are staging “a strong comeback in several countries”. The MPI report says that in the UK “the summer of 2024 saw a series of riots and demonstrations in front of hotels housing asylum seekers.
In Spain, the city of Torre-Pacheco saw several nights of rioting in July 2025, with far-right militants organising mob attacks in response to the assault of an elderly person, allegedly by people of North African origin”.
Taken together, the violence in a small town in Norfolk, the Ceuta unrest and the open political anger being expressed in European capitals all illuminate the significant difficulty that governments face in securing national borders while controlling far-right activists, agitators and unscrupulous politicians adding to the political heat this long hot European summer.
The relatively stable European way of life, prosperity and employment opportunities are inevitably attractive to those in developing countries seeking both safety and a better standard of living. That’s the immigration pull factor. The push factor includes endless wars in the Middle East, Sudan and elsewhere plus human-inspired climate change and the natural desire to live in safety.
Those who risked their lives in Ceuta or crossing the English Channel in small boats may be unwelcome, but they are often desperate, not irrational. European politicians of course have a duty to secure their national borders, but Europeans collectively also need to think of the degree of desperation that pushes people to risk their lives at sea.
