The Spanish embassy in Rabat today launched a campaign to discourage attempts at illegal entry into Ceuta and Melilla after further appeals began to circulate on social networks for crossings during the Moroccan Wednesday elections.
© Lusa
21/09/2026
by
Lusa
“ ANDin Spain illegally, Ceuta and Melilla do not guarantee the right to access the Iberian peninsula, to remain in Spain or to move freely throughout the rest of the European Union,” says the Spanish embassy in Morocco in the ‘online’ campaign.
“Don’t be fooled by false information. The recent Supreme Court decision clarifies the procedure for seafarers. It doesn't change the Immigration Act. It does not declare refusals to enter borders illegal. It does not prevent the return”, adds the campaign, which is also being shared in the accounts of several Spanish consulates in the North African country.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Spanish Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, has also advanced that his ministry has activated “preventive mechanisms” to combat calls circulating on social networks.
The initiative coincides with calls on social media for a new irregular crossing to Ceuta on the 23rd to coincide with the legislative elections in Morocco.
Social networks played a key role in the migration crisis at the end of July in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, located in North Africa, when more than 70,000 people illegally entered European territory through Morocco.
Although most irregular migrants have returned to Morocco, several thousand, mostly young people, remain in the Spanish city.
The crisis, which created great tension in the relations between Madrid and Rabat, resulted in at least 140 deaths, according to civil society organizations.
During the weekend, images of hundreds of migrants, mostly from Sub-Saharan Africa, surrounding the areas near the Ceuta border, circulated on social networks.
The crisis has caused great instability in the region, because in Ceuta there are only some 80 000 people living in Europe, but also in Europe, with several countries defending a suspension of the Schengen free movement agreement with Spain.
In Morocco, which has been accused of using migration as an instrument of destabilisation, the institutional and political reaction was limited, with authorities taking four days to issue a statement rejecting any responsibility.
This was not the first time that irregular migration to Ceuta triggered a crisis between Madrid and Rabat.
In 2021, about 10,000 people crossed irregularly into the Spanish city.
At the time, Morocco related tension with Spain's decision to allow Brahim Ghali (77 years old), leader of the Polisario Front, to receive treatment in Spanish territory after contracting covid-19.