Around 50,000 migrants crossed into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta this week, but the influx overwhelmed local authorities. At least 57 people were killed during border crossings, prompting increased border security across Europe.
Spanish leaders said they were working to expel all arrivals as quickly as possible and announced by Friday evening that most migrants had returned to neighboring Morocco. Many returned voluntarily, unable to find food or shelter in Ceuta. However, the cause of the surge remains debated.
Spanish officials, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, said human trafficking networks were encouraging migration by misrepresenting recent Supreme Court rulings on migrant repatriation.
It said traffickers and migrants mistakenly believed the ruling meant those attempting to enter the country by sea could not be deported. However, the legal judgment was very narrow.
On June 29, Spain’s Supreme Court ruled that authorities cannot summarily expel migrants arriving by sea without due process because they did not cross the physical border infrastructure mentioned in Spanish law.
The decision also targets migrants caught swimming into the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast, who are often subject to immediate deportation to Morocco without formal formalities.
“It means we can’t push them back into the sea because they can’t cross formal borders,” Gemma Piñol Jiménez, head of migration policy and diversity at Instrategy and an associate research fellow at GRITIM Pompeu Fabra University, told CNN.
“The aim is to facilitate police activity, but that does not mean that these people will remain in Ceuta.”
Piñol Jimenez said the required procedure is very short and deportation could be possible within days. “And we also have an agreement with Morocco that means if you enter the country irregularly, you can be sent back to Morocco,” she said. Spain and Morocco signed a bilateral readmission agreement in 1992, requiring third-country nationals who entered the country illegally through Moroccan territory to be brought back to Morocco under certain conditions.
Daniel Timm, professor of public, European and international law at the University of Konstanz, described the decision as a “very technical ruling”. He said the ruling distinguishes between migrants who cross the border wall and those who swim around it to reach Spanish territory, and does not constitute a comprehensive human rights ruling.
“The court even showed how the government could circumvent the judgment,” he said, referring to the judge’s suggestion that Spain could erect a physical barrier under the sea that would again allow for an immediate return.
“It’s important to understand that migration movements rarely have a single cause,” Tim says. “While this sentence may have been the trigger, there were many other factors as well.”
Spain’s relatively strong economy, a recent regularization program for undocumented migrants already living in the country, favorable sea conditions in the summer, and long-standing economic pressures on young people in Morocco and other parts of North Africa are also cited by experts as factors contributing to the possible influx.
Tim also pointed out that many of those who crossed were young people.
“A lot of them are 16 or 17 years old,” Tim said. “This poses a problem because they are officially unaccompanied minors. But once they apply for asylum, the due process is followed, which often takes months, if not years.”
Official statistics show that even though the national unemployment rate will decline slightly to 13% in 2025, the unemployment rate for Moroccans aged 15 to 24 remains high at 37.2%.
“Europe has always had a structural appeal for young people. Spain’s economy is doing very well,” Tim said.
Spain is also moving in the opposite direction from many other European countries, which are moving to the right and tightening their immigration policies. Earlier this year, the Sánchez government announced a regularization program that was originally intended to give a path to legal status for the 500,000 undocumented immigrants already living in Spain.
Tim said applications far exceeded initial expectations.
“More than 1 million illegal immigrants have applied,” he said.
Ceuta and Melilla are two Spanish territories on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, which together form the European Union’s only land border with Africa. These have long been one of Europe’s most sensitive migration routes, protected by high border fences and close cooperation between Spain and Morocco to prevent irregular border crossings.
Although the enclave is Spanish territory, it occupies a unique legal and political position. Morocco claims sovereignty over both territories, and migration to Morocco is not only a humanitarian issue but a recurring source of diplomatic tensions.
A similar surge of migrants was seen in 2021, widely seen as retaliation during the diplomatic dispute over Western Sahara. Moroccan authorities were widely criticized for relaxing border controls after Spain allowed a leader of the Western Sahara independence movement to receive medical treatment.
“This kind of organized campaign cannot happen without at least passive cooperation from the Moroccan authorities,” Piñol-Jiménez said. Morocco denies involvement.
The surge in immigration quickly became a political flashpoint across Europe.
Italy announced temporary border controls for people arriving from Spain, and France said it would step up checks along its borders. Spain’s opposition parties have accused Sánchez’s government of losing control of its borders, and European leaders have renewed calls for tougher immigration policies.
Although Ceuta is a Spanish territory and part of the Schengen Area, movement between the enclave and mainland Spain is already subject to identity checks, and migrants who reach Ceuta do not automatically have unrestricted access to continental Europe.
Meanwhile, Sanchez has already announced plans to install floating barriers in the waters around Ceuta, which the government says will comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling and restore the ability for immediate repatriation.
