Madrid, 24 September 2026. The president of the autonomous city Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, has announced plans to transfer unaccompanied minors from Ceuta to the Spanish mainland in a few cases, explicitly described as minimal, where return to Morocco is not legally possible. He spoke on the sidelines of the Forbes Economic Summit in Madrid. Spanish media such as Europa Press and Onda Cero quoted Vivas as saying that the priority was always to put the child’s best interests first.
Vivas stressed that family reunification would be the priority. This included locating parents or legal guardians and working with Moroccan institutions. Where such solutions are not viable, the transfer of individual cases to mainland Spain should be considered. He also suggested a greater role for the European Union in ensuring and funding the relevant measures.
For weeks, the Spanish central government has stressed that returns of minors must take place only within the framework of national and European law. According to La Moncloa minors for whom neither return nor family reunification is possible may legally remain in Spain. In such cases, consideration would be given on a case-by-case basis to whether they should be accommodated in other parts of Spanish territory. The relevant authorities and courts remain responsible for assessing each individual case.
In Ceuta, administrative procedures to determine age, clarify legal status and arrange family reunification are proceeding in parallel. According to the Government Delegation in Ceuta the relevant assessments have been launched. Vivas gave no specific target figures for transfers. Instead, he stressed that they would concern a narrowly limited number of cases in which returns to Morocco could demonstrably not be carried out.
Politically, the opening to transfers to mainland Spain marks a qualification of Ceuta’s previous position. It brings the distribution of responsibility between the city, the central government and, potentially, the European Union into focus. How often transfers are ultimately used will depend on the results of individual assessments, bilateral discussions with Morocco and the availability of suitable accommodation in Spain. Until then, family reunification remains Vivas’s preferred option.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).