The Partido Popular (PP) leadership has ruled out any temporary relocation of unaccompanied minors from Ceuta to the mainland. Its position now matches Vox’s, leaving nearly a thousand minors stuck in Ceuta and putting the government’s €90 million relocation plan on hold.
The situation worsened after the Audiencia Nacional issued a precautionary order on September 16, 2026, blocking the use of Ceuta’s port as a shelter. Authorities had been preparing to move almost 800 people from the beaches into a modular camp with space for more than 800, but the court’s decision halted the work. The Ministry of Transport cannot proceed until a police union’s complaint about the site is resolved, information from EFE and La Voz de Galicia.
As of mid-September, around 2,100 unaccompanied minors remained in Ceuta, and the government had begun processing their individual cases.
PP leaders argue that moving even one minor would encourage more mass entries into Ceuta. Instead, they want Madrid to send more resources to speed up all return procedures, including those for minors. Vox remains firmly against any transfers, and the PP has voted with Vox in Congress to block the relocation of children and teenagers who arrived during the mass entry at the end of July. On September 16, Congress rejected Vox’s proposal to return all minors to Morocco, with the PP backing the measure. El Constitucional describes this as a sign of the PP’s increasingly hardline stance.
Until now, Ceuta had cooperated with transfers. In 2025, 700 minors were sent to the mainland. That has changed. The only recent exception was the transfer of five minors to Navarra under a special agreement with the Socialist-led government there. The government says repatriation is slow and that the humanitarian situation in Ceuta will worsen without transfers. The Ministry of Infancia, led by Sira Rego, says temporary relocation is the only way to ease pressure on the city, but nothing can happen without Ceuta’s approval. Europa Press reports that the ministry has proposed urgently moving 500 girls to specialized organizations on the mainland, while Ceuta retains legal guardianship.
On September 13, Audiencia Nacional judge María Tardón requested government documentation on the mass entry into Ceuta since July 1, showing that judicial scrutiny of the crisis was underway before the latest suspension of the port camp project.
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The PP points to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum as a possible way to speed up returns, particularly if other countries use migration to destabilize Spain. Applying this clause would require proof that Morocco organized the mass entry to destabilize Spain, which has not been shown. Even then, the pact protects basic asylum rights and requires special safeguards for minors, including the appointment of a representative during repatriation. The government says processing delays are partly due to difficulties hiring these child advocates in agreement with Ceuta.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has publicly criticized Vivas, once praised for his cooperation but now accused of prolonging a crisis that is harming Ceuta’s residents. The PP says Vivas is defending the city and that any transfer would make the problem bigger. Vivas has said Ceuta is responsible for caring for minors, while the central government also shares responsibility for their registration and handover. He has called Sánchez’s approach “unprecedented” and described the city’s “titanic effort” to care for 2,000 unaccompanied minors, blaming the situation on a breach of Spain’s territorial integrity.
The government still hopes Vivas will eventually allow some transfers. If he does not, ministers warn, Ceuta’s population will bear the cost as thousands of migrants, many of them children, remain in difficult conditions. Ángel Víctor Torres, who leads the government’s single command in Ceuta, has urged all autonomous communities to accept minors as soon as their cases are ready, calling for a response “in line with the humanitarian drama.”
The Ministry of Infancia says the law is the same in Ceuta as in the rest of Spain and that nearly €90 million has already been allocated to support the city. The proposal to move 500 girls, considered the most vulnerable group, to specialized care on the mainland is still awaiting Vivas’s signature. The ministry says each day without transfers stems from political unwillingness, accusing the PP of blocking the only workable solution while demanding a return to normality in Ceuta.
