Spain\u2019s two tiny enclaves on the north coast of Africa have long been a flashpoint in its relationship with Morocco, which the territories border.<\/p>\n
The only such European territories on African soil, they include the autonomous city enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, as well as Plazas de Soberan\u00eda \u2013 a group of rocky islands off the Moroccan coast, which include the Chafarinas Islands, Alhucemas Islands and Penon de Velez de la Gomera.<\/p>\n
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While Spain says it owns these enclaves, Morocco does not recognise Spain\u2019s sovereignty over them and has been demanding their return since independence from France in 1956.<\/p>\n
The territorial dispute has resulted in long-standing political tensions between Spain and Morocco.<\/p>\n
Last week, after more than 50,000 migrants surged over the border into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta<\/a>, those tensions between Madrid and Rabat intensified. While most have since returned to Morocco, several thousand remain in Ceuta this week.<\/p>\n So why does Spain have these territories at all and what does their future hold?<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what we know:<\/p>\n Why does Spain have enclaves in North Africa?<\/p>\n The enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, along with a few islets off the coast of Morocco, constitute the last vestiges of the Spanish colonial empire.<\/p>\n Ceuta first came under Portuguese rule in 1415 before becoming part of Spain in 1580, while Melilla was conquered by a Spanish nobleman in 1497. Ceuta remained under Spanish control after Portugal regained independence in 1640 following a long war.<\/p>\n \u201cSpain reached its greatest extent in Latin America, and with the loss of Cuba, Costa Rica and the Philippines in 1898, it shifted its influence to Africa, although most European colonial powers had already divided it among themselves,\u201d explained Yolanda Aixel\u00e0 Cabr\u00e9, an anthropologist at IMF-CSIC in Barcelona.<\/p>\n After the decolonisation of Africa in the last century, Ceuta and Melilla remained the only European-held territories on the African mainland. Although geographically in Africa, the enclaves are considered Spanish territory and form part of the EU\u2019s external border.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Spain, maintaining these enclaves [on the northern coast of Africa] is fundamental on a symbolic level because they reinforce Spanish grandeur, its imperial past which the State continues to consider a bearer of civilisation in contrast to barbarism, a notion perfectly encapsulated by the repetitive discourse that [Christopher] Columbus, representing the Catholic Monarchs, \u2018discovered\u2019 America,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Why didn\u2019t the enclaves pass to Morocco on independence?<\/p>\n Selim Balouati Lakhloufi is a historian and researcher specialising in the history of North Africa and the Rif mountainous region in northern Morocco, which stretches along the Mediterranean coast from Tangier to the border with Algeria. He said Ceuta and Melilla continue to exist as separate territories because their origins \u201cpredate modern Morocco\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are enclaves that have been occupied for centuries,\u201d he told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n But since gaining independence from France in 1956 \u2013 which Spain recognised while retaining its enclaves \u2013 Morocco has consistently maintained that the territories of Ceuta and Melilla, which it calls \u201cSebtah and Melilah\u201d, and the Plazas de Soberan\u00eda, are part of its territory and has been demanding their return.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has always been used by the Moroccan political class as a point of criticism against Spain,\u201d Lakhloufi said.<\/p>\n Samir Bennis, a Washington, DC-based senior political adviser who is also the co-founder of Morocco World News and an expert on Morocco\u2019s foreign policy, said since independence, Morocco\u2019s territorial claims over Ceuta and Melilla have frequently been at the centre of tricky relations between Spain and Morocco.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps this issue would not have had the same detrimental effect on bilateral relations had Moroccan leaders shown greater determination in the early 1960s, during the height of the decolonisation period, to bring the matter before the United Nations and seek recognition of these two cities as colonial territories that should be liberated from any foreign presence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He explained that there are, however, two important factors which led the Moroccan authorities to refrain from pursuing this course in their efforts to restore the country\u2019s territorial integrity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first was the sheer scale of the territorial disputes between Spain and Morocco. Given the difficulty Morocco faced in simultaneously contesting Spanish control over several territories, the Moroccan government decided to proceed gradually in its efforts to recover the parts of Moroccan territory that remained under Spanish rule.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe second factor that led the Moroccan leadership to postpone addressing the question of Ceuta and Melilla was the willingness shown by the Spanish authorities to resolve their territorial disputes with Morocco progressively. In the end, this strategy proved highly beneficial for safeguarding Spain\u2019s interests in the two cities,\u201d Bennis added.<\/p>\n How strong is Morocco\u2019s claim to these enclaves?<\/p>\n Morocco\u2019s claim to the territories is relatively weak, Bennis said. But \u201cthe country can invoke a range of historical, geographical and human arguments that cast doubt on Spain\u2019s position\u201d.<\/p>\n Jamie Trinidad, a fellow and director of studies in law at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, also said that Morocco\u2019s claim to the territories is weak under international law. \u201cIt is a political, rather than a legal, claim, similar to Spain\u2019s claim to Gibraltar, which lies across the strait from Ceuta,\u201d he said. Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the 1970s, Morocco asked the UN to include the territories on the list of \u2018Non-Self-Governing Territories\u2019 overseen by the UN\u2019s Special Committee on Decolonisation, but the Moroccan request was ignored by the UN,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n What do people living in these enclaves want?<\/p>\n Around 84,000 people live in Ceuta and 86,000 in Melilla.<\/p>\n In Spanish possession since 1580, Ceuta is home to a mixed population of Christian and Muslim, Spanish and Moroccan residents and day workers who live and work in relative harmony.<\/p>\n But after more than 50,000 migrants entered Ceuta illegally last week, divisions and tensions in the enclave have risen.<\/p>\n Hundreds of residents rallied on Sunday \u2013 two days after the surge of migrants to Ceuta \u2013 to oppose a planned far-right anti-migrant rally, forcing organisers to cancel the event.<\/p>\n \u201cI am half Christian, half Muslim, as many in Ceuta are. We live peacefully together. But the numbers this time were scary,\u201d Ceuta resident Isabel told<\/a> Al Jazeera over the weekend.<\/p>\n Melilla, which has been in Spanish possession since 1497, is also home to Spanish and Moroccan residents, as well as small Jewish and Sindhi communities, the latter a diaspora of Hindu merchants who arrived following the 1947 partition of India.<\/p>\n The Plazas de Soberania is mainly populated by Spanish military personnel.<\/p>\n Lakhloufi noted that polling shows an overwhelming majority of people living in Ceuta and Melilla wish to remain part of Spain.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been reflected consistently in public opinion and in the absence of any significant political movement advocating a change in sovereignty,\u201d he said. \u201cEven the population with Moroccan origin want to stay as Spanish and European. This is because the social welfare difference between Morocco and the cities it\u2019s really high,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the same time, both cities maintain strong historical, cultural and economic ties with Morocco, making cooperation across the border an important aspect of daily life,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n According to the Spanish government, Ceuta and Melilla are part of the Schengen area, which guarantees freedom of movement within the EU, but are subject to a special Schengen regime. People travelling between the enclaves and mainland Spain undergo separate border checks.<\/p>\n