Officials in Spain's Ceuta is seeking the transfer of hundreds of unaccompanied minors from the territory to the mainland.
Though the vast majority of 72,000 migrants who arrived on its shores in under a week have since returned to Morocco, about 1,100 unaccompanied minors who arrived before and during the influx – and cannot be summarily deported – remain, according to the local government.
Many are living in makeshift accommodation in warehouses or sleeping on the streets as Ceuta's reception centres struggle to cope.
About 75 people died during last week's border rush into one of the EU's two land borders with Africa, which caused alarm across the bloc and revived memories of its 2015-2016 migration crisis.
Spanish law says that adult migrants can apply for asylum. If rejected, they will face expulsion. The bar is normally very high for Moroccans to be granted humanitarian protection.
Migrant minors who are unaccompanied by adults, however, are supposed to be granted protection and taken care of by Spanish authorities.
An AP journalist witnessed this week Spanish soldiers escorting a tearful unaccompanied Moroccan boy towards the border. He was begging not to be sent back.
A few metres before reaching the border, and due to pressure from local residents who insisted he was a minor, a lieutenant colonel in the Spanish Army stopped the repatriation and transferred the boy to the Spanish Civil Guard.
Spanish security forces ushered other young migrants towards the border.
While regional governments are obliged to assist overstretched territories in emergencies, tensions are rising between Spain's conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox – who jointly run four regions – over whether to comply with the law.
Vox's leader has said “not one euro” of Spanish money should go to the migrant minors.
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.
“We are crying out for help and assistance,” Ceuta's local government head Juan Vivas told Spanish broadcaster RTVE. “This is an absolutely unsustainable situation.”
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.
Disagreements on the policy prompted Vox to abandon five regional coalition governments it ran together with the PP in 2024 after the latter backed a Socialist-government plan to relocate 400 minors from the Canary Islands to the peninsula.
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 to other regions.
The issue threatens to once again drive a wedge between the two parties, who have entered coalitions in four regions this year that they hope will serve as a blueprint for persuading voters to hand them control of the national government following an election due next year.
It could also further strain Spain's relationship with conservative-run European countries such as Italy, which suspended passport-free Schengen travel arrangements for a month after the Ceuta border rush.
After initially stating that migrants should all be sent back, the PP's Alma Ezcurra told Spanish radio station Onda Cero that due process must first be followed to identify those suspected to be minors. “We don't even know how many there are,” she said.
The Spanish government approved €25 million ($29 million) in funding for Ceuta to support the unaccompanied minors.
“Inter-territorial solidarity is necessary so these minors end up in other locations where they will be better off,” said Miguel Angel Perez, government representative in Ceuta.
