SPAIN: Protestors in Ceuta burn shacks, vilify humanitarians ― Government asks EU agencies to support efforts in Ceuta ― Government announces reforms to immigration and asylum laws ― EU set to increase migration support to Morocco ― Leaked police repor…

• Protestors in Ceuta have set fire to some of the makeshift shelters used by people who have remained in the Spanish enclave since the mass crossing at the end of July.
• The government has asked the European Commission to support its response to the ongoing situation in Ceuta.
• The government has announced that it will present a draft law to amend Spain’s immigration and asylum laws.
• The EU is reportedly set to increase the support that it provides to Morocco for border control.
• A leaked report by Spain’s national police has claimed that Moroccan authorities were involved in the recent mass crossing into Ceuta.

Protestors in Ceuta have set fire to some of the makeshift shelters used by people who have remained in the Spanish enclave since the mass crossing at the end of July. On 27 August, the Mundo newspaper reported that two shacks had been burned on Trampolín beach while ECRE member organisation the Spanish Red Cross was distributing food to the people temporarily residing there. Protestors reportedly blocked an access road in order to prevent the humanitarian organisation’s vehicles from reaching the beach while chanting “The Red Cross is a mafia!”. Commenting on the latest incidents on 29 August, ECRE member organisation Red Acoge urged people to “remember that no form of violence is a response and that institutional responses are needed to stop this violence and guarantee the rights of migrants”.

The government has asked the European Commission (EC) to support its response to the ongoing situation in Ceuta. On 28 August, Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska wrote to the head of the EC’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, Beate Gminder, in order to request that the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and the EU Agency for Asylum (EUAA) “reinforce the mechanism put in place to deal with the management of the triage and subsequent processing of the personal files of immigrants who still remain in Ceuta irregularly”. Regarding Frontex, Grande-Marlaska has requested, inter alia, an extension of Operation Minerva and the deployment of 10 additional agents for “triage work”. He also considers that the EUAA could support the latter activity by “conducting interviews and making interpreters available”. Regarding Europol, he identified the maintenance and deepening of existing operational co-operation between it and Spanish Security Forces “especially in terms of investigation of migrant smuggling networks and strategic analysis”. Grande-Marlaska’s request came in response to Gminder’s letter to Spain’s ambassador to the EU on 21 August in which she offered the assistance of various EU agencies.

The government has announced that it will present a draft law to amend Spain’s immigration and asylum laws. According to a press release issued on 25 August, the aim of the reform is to “bring the Spanish legal framework into line with the European Pact on Migration and Asylum”. Speaking at a press conference following the Council of Ministers meeting, Minister of the Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska said: “Our aim is simply to have a more flexible, effective, well-organised and rights-based protection system, one that responds better to the new reality of migration without in any way reducing the safeguards for applicants and beneficiaries. To this end, particular attention is being paid to vulnerable people, minors and, of course, the preservation of family unity”. The Euronews television news network noted that the Spanish government had “initially opposed large parts of the [Pact] legislation” and that, despite its insistence that fundamental rights would be guaranteed under the new system, “in practice, aligning with the EU will bring harsher measures into force”.

The EU is reportedly set to increase the support that it provides to Morocco for border control. According to Euronews, the EU is “set to finalise a deal for a strategic and comprehensive partnership with Morocco by the end of the year”. It notes that the agreement “had been in the making for years but stalled until January 2026 when an EU-Morocco meeting in Brussels prompted both sides to push negotiations forward”. It also cited EU officials as saying that the delay had reportedly been due to the dispute over Western Sahara whilst denying that the ongoing situation in Ceuta had accelerated work on the agreement but acknowledging that it had “prompted Brussels to increase the resources dedicated to security, migration and border management”. In a letter to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in early August, EC President Ursula Von der Leyen suggested that the EU could “enhance border management and early-warning systems and improve our technical and financial support to Morocco”. Commenting on the EU’s potential response to the recent events, Sara Prestianni from the EuroMed Rights NGO network said: “Analysing the events of Ceuta from this perspective should lead the EU to focus mainly on addressing the socio-economic and political drivers of migration, rather than opting for a more securitised approach focused on reinforcing border management”.

A leaked report by Spain’s national police has claimed that Moroccan authorities were involved in the recent mass crossing into Ceuta. The report, which was prepared by the National Immigration and Borders Centre (CENIF) and revealed by the Español newspaper on 1 September, noted that the “planning and execution” of the crossing was “monitored by Moroccan agents on the ground”. Two days earlier, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told the Cadena Ser radio network that there was “no information from the state security forces and bodies, nor from our own or any intelligence centre, that casts doubt on the participation of the Moroccan authorities”. He also accused Russia, Israel and “an international far-right group” of playing a role in the incident.

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