Walter Finch
A MIGRANT is on the run in Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta after soaring over its 30-foot (12-metre) border fences in a paraglider.
The extraordinary crossing happened on Friday afternoon when Guardia Civil cameras picked up a colourful wing gliding down from Morocco’s Jebel Musa mountain.
Patrols rushed to the hillside of Sidi Ibrahim, a spot popular with hikers and mountain bikers, but found only the abandoned paraglider tangled in the undergrowth.
The man who steered it across the heavily fortified frontier has still not been located.
It is the first time anyone has entered Ceuta this way, although a handful of similar crossings were recorded in neighbouring Melilla in 2022.
Local reports suggested the fugitive could be in his early twenties and may have timed the flight to coincide with routine transfers of migrants from Ceuta’s reception centre (CETI) to mainland Spain.
A police source told Spanish media: “We don’t think many more will try it. It’s expensive and risky and something you need to be experienced in.”
Guardia Civil believes the crossing was part of a migration attempt and has launched an open investigation to identify the man, whose nationality remains unknown.
The feat underscores the challenge of guarding Spain’s North African borders. Ceuta is ringed by two parallel fences, each around 10 metres high, topped with razor wire, electronic sensors and high-intensity lights.
Despite these defences, Spain’s Ministry of Interior revealed that 1,452 undocumented migrants managed to enter Ceuta by land between January and July this year — a rise of more than 7% on 2024.
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Over the summer, migrants in northern Morocco were filmed on TikTok showing off paragliding gear and even publishing “guides” on routes across the frontier.
The incident coincided with another attempt on Friday, when officers intercepted a CETI resident swimming through Ceuta’s moat with a snorkel.
The manhunt for the mystery paraglider remains ongoing.
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