Hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children remain on the streets of Ceuta as authorities dispute who should receive them and where they should go. In mid-September, the Government estimated that between 700 and 1,000 minors were still outside the protection system. Minister for Youth and Children Sira Rego put the figure at 500 to 700, while organisations working in the city placed it above 2,000.
At the same time, between 2,048 and 2,140 minors had been identified and entered into the system. That difference reflects updates reported between 15 and 16 September. Until children are identified and registered, they lack reliable access to accommodation, food, water and healthcare.
The immediate bottleneck is identification. Police must establish each child's identity and age before referring them to the protection services of the Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta. When age is uncertain, the Fiscalía becomes involved, and the young person should receive provisional legal representation. Ceuta's formal capacity to accommodate minors has been reported as just 29 places.
The process is moving too slowly for the number of children waiting. Ana García of Humanitarios Sin Fronteras says minors have repeatedly arrived at police facilities only to find the teams receiving them already overwhelmed. Some organisations are providing translation and mediation, while also offering temporary shelter because official resources remain insufficient.
The Government's figures reflect the same gap. Minister for Territorial Policy Ángel Víctor Torres said that 2,048 minors had been identified by 15 September. Updated reporting put the total at 2,140.
Assessing age is harder when young people have no documents. Salvador González, president of the Consejo General de la Abogacía Española, says appearance alone cannot reliably distinguish a 16-year-old from someone aged 18 or 20. Once minority is confirmed, officials must open an individual file covering family circumstances, vulnerability, possible international protection and the administrative route that follows.
Ceuta is responsible for protecting and caring for minors found in the city. The central government controls immigration and international protection procedures, including any possible family reunification. This division of powers makes cooperation impressive and lies at the centre of the political dispute.
Government statements and reporting by Cadena SER, RTVE and 20minutos show that the disagreement concerns the scale of the emergency and how quickly children can be moved to mainland Spain. Cadena SER reported that the central government had begun individual processing by opening the first 10 personal files for minors, aiming to support their legal situation and prepare possible transfers. Madrid has said redistribution to the mainland could take at least two months if the political blockage continues.
The Government wants children already inside the protection system moved to mainland Spain. It has also called for the transfer of 500 girls considered especially vulnerable. Fundación Engloba says it can accommodate 500 minors in resources located mainly in Andalusia.
Most autonomous communities governed by the Partido Popular or in coalition with Vox oppose new arrivals or reject mass transfers, saying their centres are already full. Madrid has promoted redistribution as the practical alternative if the Partido Popular's blockage continues.
The dispute comes as concern grows over Ceuta's capacity. More than 6,000 people who entered during the mass arrivals of 30 and 31 July have been placed in temporary accommodation, information from the Government. An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people remain on the streets.
Other public estimates in September put the number of migrants without formal registration at around 3,000 to 3,500, including minors. The Interior Ministry's handling of the wider crisis has already drawn attention in an earlier Ceuta report.
Since 2025, Spain has had a specific mechanism for distributing unaccompanied minors when an extraordinary migration contingency is declared. The reform of Article 35 of the immigration law uses criteria such as population, per-capita income and unemployment, alongside existing reception capacity, previous accommodation efforts, border status, insularity and territorial dispersion.
A region may request activation of the emergency mechanism when its number of unaccompanied minors reaches three times its ordinary capacity.
Repatriation does not follow automatically from irregular entry. The Delegation or Subdelegation of the Government must examine the child's personal and family situation, conditions in the country of origin and whether reunification serves the child's best interests.
Any return must aim to reunite the minor with family or place them under the protection of services in the country of origin. The child must be heard, and the procedure must also involve the protection services and the Fiscalía.
The Plataforma de Infancia and 27 organisations, including Save the Children and CEAR, say prolonged stays on the streets are harming children's physical and mental health and increasing their exposure to violence, abuse and exploitation.
The organisations support transfers with legal guarantees, tailored to each child's needs. They reject collective returns.
Ceuta cannot resolve the crisis through local accommodation alone. The central government cannot make protection work without functioning identification procedures. The law provides a route for transfers and sets limits on repatriation, but those safeguards mean little while children remain unregistered on the streets.
The immediate task is to register each child, provide protection with proper legal guarantees and arrange transfers based on need rather than political bargaining.
