The Provincial Court of Cádiz sentenced Salvadora Mateos, then Government Delegate in Ceuta, and Mabel Deu, the city’s former First Vice President, to nine years of special disqualification from public office for administrative prevarication. The case concerned the 2021 return of Moroccan minors through an expedited mechanism that bypassed the procedures required for unaccompanied foreign children. The court found the decisions arbitrary and manifestly unjust. Spain’s Supreme Court later confirmed that the returns were unlawful because the required legal structure had not been followed.
That structure requires an individualized examination before a child is returned, weighing the child’s personal and family circumstances alongside protection needs and the risks of return, with coordination involving the country of origin. The 2021 proceedings established that urgency alone cannot replace those safeguards or justify a blanket decision affecting children. The ruling has since become a basic reference in the debate over how migration emergencies should be managed.
The events began in May 2021, when approximately 15,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco amid a severe diplomatic dispute between Madrid and Rabat. Around 1,200 people were identified or claimed to be minors, and the Autonomous City of Ceuta assumed responsibility for their protection. The speed and scale of the arrivals placed pressure on local services, but did not remove the legal protections governing any return. More than 600 family-reunification requests relating to minors were later sent to Morocco; La Vanguardia reported that Rabat had not responded to any of them.
The political dispute has continued during later arrivals. Partido Popular leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo has called for urgent returns of migrants who entered Ceuta during the mass arrival at the end of July, saying that “they must return to their country” and that “all must go back, minors included.” Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas has likewise argued that repatriation is the “only solution” to prevent a recurrence. Those demands contrast with the legal requirement that each child’s case be examined individually before a return can proceed.
The central government has emphasized child-protection procedures and transfers to other autonomous communities, while also pursuing family reunification. Minister Ángel Víctor Torres has said that the child’s best interests must prevail when a minor does not wish to return or when return would conflict with protection duties. He has also described transfers to other communities as a matter of “mandatory justice and solidarity” and said approximately 4,000 minors had been transferred over the preceding two years. These transfers within Spain are distinct from repatriation to Morocco.
A later reported snapshot of Ceuta’s protection system counted 3,331 minors, with 107 reunited with relatives in mainland Spain and 181 transferred to other autonomous communities. The figures illustrate the different pathways being used to ease pressure on the city’s services. They also underline why the 2021 case remains relevant: political demands for rapid returns do not replace the required assessment of each child’s circumstances and protection needs. For further context on the political clash and emergency transfers, see this detailed analysis of the Ceuta migrant minors dispute.
