José Manuel Albares and Nasser Bourita will meet in New York this week, with Ceuta at the centre of their talks. The Spanish and Moroccan foreign ministers are expected to discuss the return of irregular migrants still in the autonomous city after the mass entry on 30 July. They will also address new social media calls for a similar attempt.
The meeting will take place on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly. EFE reports that the talks are intended to address the planned returns and the risk of another influx. Spanish authorities are monitoring calls for mass entries into Ceuta and Melilla around the elections scheduled for 23 September.
Madrid says contact with Rabat is continuous, and some Spanish reports describe it as almost daily. Albares said the two governments are tracking the online appeals. He also said Morocco had promised to take measures to prevent another mass entry on 23 September, when elections are due to take place in Morocco.
Spanish officials are also trying to counter what they describe as false information about what an irregular entry into either city can provide.
Albares's message was direct. Reaching Ceuta or Melilla irregularly does not grant access to Europe. It gives people no right to remain in Spain or move freely across the European Union. He warned that people who respond to the calls could put their money and lives at risk, jeopardizing their future. Spain has repeated the warning through diplomatic channels, including communications linked to its embassy and consulates.
The Spanish government is also seeking help from the Moroccan press. It wants to circulate information from Spain's embassy and consulates to reduce support for the appeals spreading online. Efforts to stop a new entry are taking place alongside an administrative operation to reduce the number of migrants already in Ceuta.
European and Spanish reporting says that most of the roughly 2,000 unaccompanied minors who arrived in Ceuta will not be returned to Morocco. Their treatment differs from the policy applied to most adult migrants.
The diplomatic meeting comes as Ceuta has already become the focus of earlier Ceuta coverage. The current issue is the possibility of new arrivals and the fate of migrants already in the city without regular status. Estimates of those still present differ sharply: some government-linked reports put the number at just over 3,000, while others give a figure of approximately 9,000 to 10,000. The exact total depends on the source and the date of the estimate.
Albares said Bourita has repeatedly expressed Morocco's willingness to cooperate on returns. Information from the Spanish minister, people who have already been sent back are returning to Morocco. That position also appears in an official Moroccan communiqué and in information provided to European Union authorities.
Spanish authorities report continuing voluntary returns at a rate of roughly 150 to 200 people a day. By the middle of September, official and agency summaries cited more than 5,300 such returns, along with hundreds of administrative expulsions.
Spain is tying border monitoring to returns, with public information as a parallel effort, and sees Morocco as a necessary partner in both areas. The immediate task is to stop online appeals from turning into dangerous journeys while keeping the return process moving through official cooperation. The New York talks are intended to manage a specific pressure point; they do not announce a new migration policy. Ceuta remains the basic subject, with the 23 September date setting a deadline for the online calls and migrant returns giving the discussions a concrete administrative task.
Albares's warning rejects the idea that irregular entry offers a route into Europe. Madrid's strategy relies on coordination with Rabat and communication through Moroccan media. The meeting matters because of its immediate border-management purpose and the cooperation described by the minister.
