Border crisis in Spain’s Ceuta has exposed its Christian-Muslim fault lines

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CEUTA, Spain (AP) — Ceuta , a sliver of land in North Africa, is an anomaly for Spain: a city where Muslims and Christians live in almost equal numbers.

But a monthslong migration crisis in the Spanish exclave, which Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia will visit on Tuesday for the first time, has exposed divisions in a place that bills itself as a beacon of coexistence. Some people say the fault lines were always there.

The crisis was triggered in late July when about 80,000 people poured into the Spanish exclave from neighboring Morocco, driven by rumors online that Spain had opened its border. Most of those who crossed left within days, but up to 15,000 migrants stayed , leaving the city under strain and pitting residents against one another.

The crisis has been shouldered unevenly

Many migrants who remained in Ceuta have sheltered in Muslim neighborhoods, sleeping on streets, in doorways and in makeshift tent camps and centers run by NGOs and locals. Residents say the chaos never ended for them and have grown frustrated.

Mohamed Susi, a resident of the Muslim-majority…