An estimated 1,000 unaccompanied children remain in Ceuta, a city whose normal population is about 84,000. But they do not answer the most urgent question in a border city: what happens to the person standing in front of you now? Elsewhere, local residents gave young migrants food and clothes. When far-right figures arrived to brand the crossings an "invasion", Ceuta residents organised counter-protests against outsiders exploiting the emergency. Returnees depended on local residents for food, transport and a place to rest.