Migrants who crossed into Ceuta are taken back to Morocco in an army vehicle, following deadly mass crossings of migrants on foot and by sea from Morocco into Spanish territory, in Ceuta, Spain, August 2, 2026. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
Spain insisted yesterday its sovereignty over Ceuta was “unquestionable”, after tens of thousands of migrants irregularly entered the north African territory from Morocco.
Madrid has avoided criticising Rabat over last week’s mass arrivals, which some commentators have interpreted as a means for Morocco to pressure Spain.
Morocco does not recognise Ceuta and Madrid’s other north African exclave, Melilla, as Spanish territory and has claimed sovereignty over them since its independence in 1956.
Answering a question during televised remarks yesterday, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said: “That Ceuta and Melilla are an integral part of Spain’s territory is unquestionable, for the whole world.”
Most of the estimated 60,000 people who last week rushed into Ceuta — most having swum by sea around the border barrier — have since returned to Morocco.
The Spanish central government’s delegate in Ceuta, Miguel Angel Perez, said yesterday that 2,500 of them were estimated to still be in Ceuta. Ceuta’s top official Juan Jesus Vivas put the figure at between 3,000 and 5,000.
AFP saw Spanish police and soldiers on Sunday patrolling and escorting small groups of migrants to the border to return to Morocco.
The charity Save the Children said in a statement yesterday that “about 1,000” of the remaining migrants from last week’s arrivals were minors who were “unprotected”.
It said Ceuta’s child protection system had capacity to look after just 100.AFP on Saturday saw hundreds of children sheltering in a warehouse complex near the border, who said they had no food.
“There was no report alerting us to the size of the numbers that we had to respond to,” Spain’s Migration Minister Elma Saiz said on Monday in televised comments.
“Of course, this response would not have been possible without Morocco’s collaboration.”
Some analysts suggested Morocco might have allowed migrants to cross the border to put diplomatic pressure on Spain, which has recently improved ties with Rabat’s arch-enemy Algeria.
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