Spain’s Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, is returning to Ceuta this Thursday for the third time since the border crisis began at the end of July. The visit follows a public dispute with Ceuta’s president, Juan José Vivas, who has refused to let the city’s port be used as a migrant reception area. The dispute has deepened tensions between Madrid and local officials as Ceuta tries to cope with more than 70,000 arrivals from Morocco in just a few days.
The government has responded by boosting security and logistical support. Ceuta now has 714 Civil Guard officers and 945 National Police, the highest ratio of security personnel to residents in Spain. A new Temporary Foreigners Attention Centre (CATE), with 400 places, is about to open. It will have 14 identification teams to process arrivals, alongside the ten teams already working.
Official Spanish statistics report that 4,076 people crossed the land border into Ceuta from January 1 to August 31, 2026, excluding the mass entries on July 30 and 31.
Grande-Marlaska is scheduled to meet with the government’s delegate in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez, and senior police and Civil Guard commanders. The meetings will assess the situation and coordinate the next phase of crisis management. During earlier visits, one with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on July 31 and another on August 13, the government released figures showing that more than 1,800 unaccompanied minors had been identified and about 5,000 foreign nationals remained in the city weeks after the initial surge.
Behind closed doors, the government is preparing to declassify basic reports to support its claim that there were no advance warnings about the scale of the influx. The move aims to answer criticism from within the cabinet: Defence Minister Margarita Robles has said alerts were issued before the crisis. The Interior Ministry maintains that officials did not anticipate the true scale, while Prime Minister Sánchez has promised more clarity once the documents are released. Reuters reports a fresh dispute within the government over who warned about the crisis and when. The Interior Minister has asked the national police to clarify a report allegedly linking the mass entry to Moroccan security forces. Police deny that such a report exists or that there is evidence of Moroccan involvement.
The political fallout has reached Madrid. The Partido Popular has taken legal action over ministers missing Senate sessions during the crisis, increasing pressure on the government to show control and transparency. Earlier reports detail the legal move.
Estimates of how many migrants remain in Ceuta vary widely: Reuters reports that more than 10,000 people are still in or near the city, while other sources put the figure at about 5,000, including thousands of minors. The uncertainty strains local infrastructure and complicates efforts to provide adequate reception facilities.
Reuters
The Interior Ministry says reinforcements and new facilities are helping stabilize the situation. Still, the refusal to open the port and continued disputes with local leaders point to poor coordination. The government’s next steps depend on the credibility of its upcoming disclosures and its ability to maintain order without losing support from regional partners. Ceuta has become a test of Spain’s crisis management and cooperation between national and local authorities.
