by Vladimir Dobrynin
[REGNUM] The "coastal walk" to Spain by 60,000 Moroccans attracted worldwide attention. During the crisis, Spanish analysts, experts, media outlets, and bloggers eagerly shared their answers to the question "Why this demonstration?"
Theories include: financial incentives (a similar crisis in 2021 resulted in the allocation of €30 million from the Spanish budget to the Moroccans "to strengthen the police controlling approaches to the state border"); a desire to prove that Spain is incapable of maintaining order on its own territory and that the upcoming 2030 World Cup final should be held not at Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu, but at a new stadium in Casablanca, which will be built specifically for the purpose; and an attempt by King Mohammed VI of Morocco to pressure Madrid to stop supporting Western Sahara.
But none of the versions, despite the feeling of their validity and plausibility, answered the main question: does Spain have the right (legal, and not just the right of the strong) to say that this is an attack on its sovereign territory?
| Spain has held the two territories longer than the Turks have held Constantinople, and both Spain and the Moslems have held their current possessions for millennia less than Jews were in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. But do go on. |
There was no way around the claim that the Spanish exclave of Ceuta on the African continent was "different." And at the end of last week, the heavy artillery of Spanish historical scholarship entered the fray.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
So why is a territory located in the heart of North Africa part of Spain, and what legal status does it actually have in the international community?
The official response of Spanish diplomacy and international law is categorical: the United Nations recognizes it as a Spanish province, and the law does not consider it a colony.
While the Arab kingdom has effectively claimed it since independence in 1956, based on the irredentist doctrine of Greater Morocco, Madrid's legal argument rests on "more than five centuries of uninterrupted sovereignty, dating back long before the modern boundaries of the North African map were defined."
The Iberian Peninsula's connection to this part of continental Africa actually arose long before the formation of the modern Moroccan state. In the 15th century, Ceuta was one of the Islamic world's most important economic and strategic ports, under the rule of several Berber and Arab dynasties, but was conquered by Portugal in 1415 as part of the Christian Reconquista.
In 1580, the death of the Portuguese King Sebastian I, who left no heirs, allowed King Philip II of Spain to unite both crowns in the Iberian Union, integrating the city into Spanish dominion. When this union dissolved in 1640, the residents of Ceuta themselves decided to swear allegiance to Spain.
Meanwhile, in 1497, the Spanish completed the capture of another city on African soil: Melilla. A fleet sent under direct orders from the Catholic Monarchs (Reies Catolicos—an honorary historical title of two Spanish monarchs: Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile ) captured this port just five years after the fall of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada.
For generations, control of both cities was crucial to maritime and commercial survival on one of the world's busiest waterways.
For the Spanish state, controlling access to the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar was a strategic priority. "Ceuta and Melilla acquired enormous value due to their proximity to the Iberian Peninsula and their ability to control passage through the Strait of Gibraltar," explained historian Manuel Torres Soriano of the Pablo de Olavide University in Seville in an interview with the BBC.
Situated just across the strait and just 14 kilometres from the peninsula's coast, Ceuta served as a hub for trade and the flow of people between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
"Melilla, on the other hand, fulfilled the need for a port and a base for combating piracy. This was a huge security problem for Spain," Torres added.
| Given that the pirates were Moslem… |
This strategic and military weight remained unchanged throughout the turbulent first half of the 20th century. From 1912 to 1956, Spain and France administered a protectorate in North Africa, encompassing vast territories of modern-day Morocco.
However, Ceuta and Melilla were excluded from this agreement, as they were already Spanish national territories. Following Morocco's independence in 1956 and the return of the southern zone of the protectorate in 1958, both cities remained under the uninterrupted sovereignty of Madrid.
MOROCCO'S PROPOSALS REJECTED
Almost from the very moment of independence, Moroccan diplomacy attempted to "decolonize" Ceuta and Melilla. Morocco claimed that the Spanish presence constituted an occupation inherited from the colonial past and brought the issue before the UN Special Committee on Decolonization (the so-called "Committee of 24").
However, the international organization rejected the request outright. Unlike territories such as Western Sahara, which was included in the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, Ceuta and Melilla were recognized as an integral part of Spain's provincial and constitutional structure.
"According to the law, these territories are not considered colonies, since they are fully integrated into Spain as autonomous entities within the framework of the Spanish constitution," Jamie Trinidad, an international law expert at the University of Cambridge in the UK, told the BBC.
"It will be very difficult for Morocco to change this status, although I think it will continue to defend its claims as a political strategy," he noted.
The political regime of both exclaves changed dramatically in 1995 with the adoption of their Statutes of Autonomy.
This legal framework guarantees their citizens full legislative representation in the Spanish Congress and Senate, and also ensures the direct application of all European Union law, as these territories are the bloc's only land borders on the African continent.
ECONOMIC VULNERABILITY
Despite robust legal and constitutional protections, everyday life in Ceuta is characterized by a fragile socioeconomic balance. According to official data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), the city consistently ranks among the lowest in the country for per capita wealth.
Its economic model has historically been shaped by informal cross-border trade and reliance on transit flows with neighboring countries, which has already led to serious economic shocks. Such as the border closure announced by Morocco in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, which lasted for over two years and exposed the region's extreme vulnerability.
"Despite the Moroccan origins of many residents of Ceuta and Melilla and the growing influence of Islam in the region, the issue of national identity has not yet become widespread. In fact, residents of Ceuta and Melilla of Moroccan descent feel more confident in their Spanish identity," Torres notes.
According to him, “from the point of view of the majority of residents of these cities, Morocco’s claims are perceived as a threat.”
“With more than five centuries of shared history and strong international support, Ceuta is not a relic of the colonial era, but an integral part of the Spanish state in North Africa,” El Confidencial correspondent Jorge García González concludes this excursion into the distant past.
"The future of Ceuta and Melilla inevitably depends on restructuring their production systems to reduce external dependence and strengthen their security amid diplomatic tensions between Madrid and Rabat. Dramatic events such as the sudden influx of approximately 8,000 migrants in the spring of 2021 or the serious incidents at the Melilla border fence in 2022 demonstrate that border tensions are often used as a bargaining chip in political negotiations," he argues.
The 2021 crisis deserves special attention in this context. The situation with the virtually simultaneous invasion of Ceuta by 8,000 Moroccans is the result of one wrong decision by Madrid—from Rabat's perspective.
On April 18, 2021, by order of the Spanish Socialist government, Brahim Ghali, Secretary General of the Polisario Front
| …a member of the Socialist International since 1973… |
Unlike the other two-thirds, it is not subordinate to Rabat. De jure, the SADR territory remains a Spanish colony, although this term is not mentioned in the Spanish press.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared Ghali's hospitalization an "act of humanitarian aid." Mohammed VI saw it as political, and... 8,000 Moroccans entered Ceuta, then quickly left. No one, it must be said, hid the fact that they had no intention of obtaining residence permits in Spain. The demonstration was a success: the Moroccan police received substantial financial support from the Spanish budget.
Some experts doubt that the new crisis was a planned move by Rabat. This is especially true given that Madrid created its own problems with the Supreme Court's ruling that deporting immigrants who arrived by sea was unconstitutional. The African kingdom's Foreign Ministry stated that the massive influx of immigrants to Ceuta was triggered by disinformation spread on social media about the border's opening.
However, there is one fact that could have angered King Mohammed this time and forced him to "act as a deterrent." On July 20, Sánchez made an official visit to Algeria. He came to discuss friendship and cooperation (including oil and gas supplies). The caveat is that Algeria is the only African country that openly supports the Polisario, meaning it is in conflict with Morocco over this issue in the struggle for influence in Africa.
This could have been the final straw: Rabat already had a grudge against Algeria, which in 2021 stopped gas supplies to Spain via Morocco. Sánchez's direct contact with Algerian suppliers practically bluntly tells Mohammed VI that there will be no resumption of transit (and therefore no money from it, nor free gas) through Morocco.
Moreover, Morocco supports Israel, and Sánchez condemns the war in Gaza. So the recent "beach march" may not be the last act in this story. Furthermore, hundreds of illegal immigrants are still in Ceuta, roaming the streets and threatening the local population.
Related:
Ceuta: 2026-08-03 Overwhelming migrant blitz on Spain shatters globalist fiction and proves our leaders have abandoned sovereign borders
Ceuta: 2026-08-03 Ben Gvir moves to arm Beersheba residents
Ceuta: 2026-08-03 Spain’s migrant crisis was framed as global antisemitic conspiracy online — report
Ceuta: 2026-08-03 Overwhelming migrant blitz on Spain shatters globalist fiction and proves our leaders have abandoned sovereign borders
Ceuta: 2026-08-03 Ben Gvir moves to arm Beersheba residents
Ceuta: 2026-08-03 Spain’s migrant crisis was framed as global antisemitic conspiracy online — report
Related:
Polisario Front: 2026-07-31 Angry locals waving Spanish flags chase migrants down the street after thousands invade enclave - as Army is called in
Polisario Front: 2026-05-07 Sahrawi People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has struck the city of Smara
Polisario Front: 2026-04-29 Terrorist Attack in Mali: Afrika Korps Smashes Bandits of Four Colors
Polisario Front: 2026-07-31 Angry locals waving Spanish flags chase migrants down the street after thousands invade enclave - as Army is called in
Polisario Front: 2026-05-07 Sahrawi People's Liberation Army (SPLA) has struck the city of Smara
Polisario Front: 2026-04-29 Terrorist Attack in Mali: Afrika Korps Smashes Bandits of Four Colors