Ceuta’s leader Juan Jesus Vivas told EU lawmakers at the European Parliament on Thursday that some 100 people had died during last week’s border surge.
He also said the city was still reeling from the event and now dealing with unaccompanied migrant minors who remain in Ceuta.
Vivas called the situation “unsustainable,” and pleaded for government help.
His visit to Brussels comes a week after some 72,000 migrants rushed through the border between Morocco and Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta.
The incident caused a spat between several EU countries and Madrid, with Italy suspending the Schengen free-travel pact with Spain.
On Wednesday, Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras said some 141 people had died on July 30, with 63 bodies found in Morocco and 78 in Ceuta.
Ceuta asks for more security resources
The Spanish government said that nearly all of the migrants had returned to Morocco, but Vivas noted that between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants were still in Ceuta.
Vivas also said Ceuta lacked the security resources necessary to deal with the situation.
“Security forces have not been deployed with the intensity required by the situation we are still facing,” he told a European Parliament committee.
“Immigration services have not been sufficiently reinforced to handle the border rejections,” he added.
Large number of migrant children in Ceuta
Morocco said it is ready “to work towards identifying unaccompanied minors with a view to their return to their homeland,” state news agency MAP reported on Thursday evening, citing a diplomatic source.
It is estimated that hundreds of unaccompanied minors are currently facing limited access to food, water, shelter and sanitation in Ceuta.
Some children have been beaten and assaulted, says Jose Miguel Morales, head of Federacion Sur Acoge, a migrant rights and assistance group from southern Spain.
“Every day that passes without a solution and without safe accommodation means leaving these children — especially these girls — exposed to all kinds of abuse,” he told Spanish public television.
“We are talking about real children — 10 years old or younger in some cases. Many are under 14.”
Another charity, Save the Children, urged for all minors to be registered. It also warned that girls face “heightened risks of violence, trafficking and exploitation.”
Minors likely to be distributed to ther parts of Spain
In 2025, after a surge of migration overwhelmed reception centers in the Canary Islands, Spain passed an immigration law reform. The new law mandated the redistribution of unaccompanied minors from overstretched territories within 15 days of their case file being completed.
However, the redistribution of the children to the rest of Spain is expected to meet resistance from regions governed by the center-right Popular Party (PP) and the anti-immigration, far-right Vox party.
But Spain’s socialist government already has warned against the pushback, with Deputy Prime Minister Carlos Cuerpo saying that PP and its regional governments “must comply with the law just like everyone else.”
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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