Ceuta was a carnival of reaction for the international far right. It weaponised the sudden migration surge from Morocco to the Spanish enclave into “a kind of border porn for the global far right: a locus upon which to project their most vivid and apocalyptic fantasies” as Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew eloquently put it.

The incident raises longer-term issues about how Europe’s relations with north Africa’s authoritarian regimes are being intensified by securitised migration regimes. Wider issues are about the development of European Union-Africa relations during the Irish EU presidency and how to tackle what Oxford academic Anton Jäger calls online hyperpolitics in a new book.

EU member states disgraced themselves again on the subject, 22 of them immediately signing a letter criticising Spain for the alleged threat to their societies. According to a joint statement by Italy and Denmark, illegal immigration causes rising crime, growing pressure on public services and erodes citizen trust. They say ordinary people pay the cost and vow to protect Europe’s Christian cultural heritage against those who want to upend it.

In fact, all but between 1,000 and 2,000 of the 60,000 or more Moroccans who swam to Ceuta returned the next day, after 72 died en route. High fences surrounding the enclave work; from January to April this year 2,582 crossed that border, 1,000 claimed asylum and overall numbers going........

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