Spain’s government is preparing to move around 500 unaccompanied migrant girls from the North African enclave of Ceuta to the Spanish mainland, even as the European Commission insists that all migrants in Ceuta be returned to Morocco.
DR reports that the 500 children have been in Ceuta since tens of thousands of migrants crossed from Morocco on July 30. According to El País, the group consists of girls, and Ceuta has accepted the government plan as an “extraordinary measure” while demanding that all other migrants be sent back.
Most of the estimated 70,000 people who entered the enclave have already returned to Morocco. DR reports that hundreds remain in Ceuta, many of them living on the street without food or water.
Spain’s minister responsible for migration, Elma Saiz, told Euronews that some of the girls have already been placed in safe locations. That followed reports that several of them had been subjected to violence and rape in Ceuta.
Bringing migrants to the mainland is a politically sensitive issue in Spain, and not all parties support the plan. Spanish law nonetheless places a special duty on the state to care for unaccompanied minors.
Legal basis and regional resistance
El Mundo reports that a royal decree adopted in 2025 requires Spanish regions to take in migrant children when reception systems in territories such as Ceuta are overloaded, as they are now. The decree forms the legal basis for the current transfer plan.
Several regions have said publicly that they do not want to receive the children. The government is therefore considering whether NGOs could take on the care of the unaccompanied minors on the mainland, so that the regions would not carry the responsibility.
The European Commission has stated that all migrants staying illegally in Ceuta should be returned to Morocco under EU law. Its home affairs spokesperson, Markus Lammert, confirmed to The Guardian that this also applies to unaccompanied minors. At a press briefing on August 18, he said the priority is that Spanish and Moroccan authorities bring the situation under control and secure swift returns.
The Guardian describes the decision as a reversal, noting that Spain’s interior minister had previously said no irregular migrants in Ceuta or Melilla would reach the Iberian peninsula.
Sur in English reports that police have identified more than 2,100 children in Ceuta since the July 30 crossing, around 800 of them unaccompanied. In a first phase of the relocation plan, roughly 500 vulnerable girls would be sent to regions on the mainland under the existing decree. Reuters reported earlier in August that Spain hoped to carry out transfers within weeks.
