{"id":66506,"date":"2026-08-06T05:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/66506\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T05:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T05:59:08","slug":"spains-ceuta-seeks-transfer-of-unaccompanied-migrant-minors-to-mainland-spain-after-border-rush-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/66506\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain’s Ceuta seeks transfer of unaccompanied migrant minors to mainland Spain after border rush"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ceuta, Spain
Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s Ceuta, still reeling from a rush of 72,000 migrants arriving on its shores in one week, is seeking the transfer of hundreds of unaccompanied minors still in the enclave to mainland Spain, local leaders said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Though the vast majority of migrants have since returned to Morocco, roughly 1,100 unaccompanied minors who arrived before and during the influx \u2013 and cannot be summarily deported \u2013 remain, according to the local government.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A migrant minor from Morocco is escorted by Spanish security forces after attempting to cross into Ceuta by sea amid recent mass crossings of migrants on foot and by sea from Morocco into Spanish territory, in Ceuta, Spain, on 1st August, 2026. PICTURE: Reuters\/Violeta Santos Moura<\/p>\n

Many are lodged in makeshift accommodation in warehouses or sleeping on the streets as Ceuta\u2019s reception centres are full.<\/p>\n

Charities and residents\u2019 groups said they were trying to help children sleeping rough, along with pregnant women.<\/p>\n

Hamza Sitouni Moreno, a 40-year-old local, said he had taken children to the authorities but been turned away, so he had a young girl sleeping in his car for safety, and had built makeshift shelters for other children and provided them with food and blankets.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people arrived\u2026the authorities cannot handle this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

About 75 people died during last week\u2019s border rush across one of the European Union\u2019s two land borders with Africa, which triggered alarm across the bloc and revived memories of its 2015-16 migration crisis, in which more than 1 million people arrived, mostly from the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\tWe rely on our readers to fund Sight’s work – become a financial supporter today!<\/p>\n

While regional governments are obliged to assist overstretched territories in emergencies, it remains unclear if Spain\u2019s conservative People\u2019s Party and far-right Vox \u2013 which jointly run four regions \u2013 would accept migrant minors.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, all four of their regional coalition governments indicated they would challenge any such order, with Vox\u2019s leader saying \u201cnot one euro\u201d of Spanish money should go to the migrant minors.<\/p>\n

Even if regions accept them, experts warn that the process of identification and relocation could take months, requiring individual interviews, reports and contact with countries of origin to rule out returning them to their families.<\/p>\n

A lawyer representing humanitarian charities in Ceuta, who declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to media, said the authorities and police were currently focused on registering minors under 15, but that there could be thousands more young people still to be identified in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are crying out for help and assistance,\u201d Ceuta\u2019s local government head, Juan Jesus Vivas, told Spanish broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"\"
An unaccompanied minor from Morocco sleeps at the Sidi Embarek cemetery in Ceuta, Spain, on 5th August, 2026, where migrants sought refuge after mass crossings on foot and by sea from Morocco into the Spanish enclave. PICTURE: Reuters\/Violeta Santos Moura<\/p>\n

Migration emergency
Under a reform to Spanish immigration law implemented in 2025, after a surge of migration overwhelmed reception centres in the Canary Islands, unaccompanied minors must be redistributed from overstretched territories within 15 days of their case file being completed.<\/p>\n

Disagreements on the policy prompted Vox to abandon five regional coalition governments it ran with the PP in 2024 after the latter backed a Socialist-government plan to relocate 400 minors from the Canary Islands to the peninsula.<\/p>\n

Since the reform, 719 minors have been transferred from the Canary Islands to mainland Spain, according to government data released in April 2026, and more than 400 minors arriving in Ceuta have been relocated.<\/p>\n

The issue could also further strain Spain\u2019s relationship with conservative-run European countries such as Italy, which suspended passport-free \u200bSchengen travel arrangements with \u2060Spain for a month after the Ceuta border rush.<\/p>\n

After initially stating that migrants should all be sent back, the PP\u2019s Alma Ezcurra told Spanish radio station Onda Cero on Wednesday that due process must first be followed to identify those suspected to be minors.<\/p>\n

However, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, the PP president of the Madrid regional government, said the young migrants should be sent home. \u201cI can\u2019t see Spain abandoning its children to their fate in another country,\u201d she posted on X. \u201cIt\u2019s inhuman, every country should take responsibility for its own children and citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spanish Government approved \u20ac25 million in funding for Ceuta to support the unaccompanied minors.<\/p>\n

\u201cInter-territorial solidarity is necessary so these minors end up in other locations where they will be better off,\u201d said Miguel Angel Perez, government representative in Ceuta, on Wednesday. \u201cThe law must be upheld.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 With reporting by CORINA PONS, VICTORIA WALDERSEE, JAVI WEST LARRA\u00d1AGA and DAVID LATONA; Additional reporting by ZAKIA ABDENNEBI in Rabat, Morocco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ceuta, SpainReuters Spain\u2019s Ceuta, still reeling from a rush of 72,000 migrants arriving on its shores in one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3299,2164,3593,2264,17,16480],"class_list":["post-66506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-ceuta","tag-eu","tag-migrants","tag-morocco","tag-spain","tag-unaccompanied-minors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}