The European Union has exactly one land border with the African continent. It does not run along the Mediterranean but in the middle of North Africa, around two Spanish cities enclosed by Moroccan territory: Ceuta and Melilla.
Neither is a colony in the usual sense, and neither is recent. Melilla has been Spanish since the late 15th century, Ceuta passed from Portugal to Spain in the 17th. Both are therefore older than the present Moroccan state and older than most European borders.
Morocco nonetheless regards them as occupied territory and demands their return. Spain points to the centuries and to the fact that the people living there are Spanish citizens. Both positions have stood side by side, unchanged, for decades.
How this turned into a migration question
As long as borders in the region were permeable, the status hardly mattered. That changed when the EU began to secure its external borders systematically. Suddenly European law lay behind a fence in North Africa, and with it the chance to file an asylum claim.
Both cities were ringed with high, multi-layered fence installations. Anyone who gets over them, or swims around the breakwaters, is standing on EU soil. That is why these few kilometres have seen, year after year, what is otherwise spread across the whole width of the Mediterranean.
European law begins behind a fence in North Africa. That is the entire reason.
— TerraTally · Borders desk
Again and again, very large numbers of people try to cross at the same time, some over the fences, some swimming around the harbour works. In May 2021 around 8,000 people reached Ceuta within two days, most of them swimming. In June 2022 around 2,000 people tried to get over the fence at Melilla. According to authorities and organisations, at least 23 people died in the attempt.
The largest incident so far came at the end of July 2026. Figures for the number of people involved vary widely and were corrected several times by Spanish authorities. After 48 hours, 88 deaths by drowning had been confirmed.
A note on the figures: numbers for events of this kind are unreliable in the first days and are regularly revised upwards or downwards. The circumstances are often disputed as well. For several incidents there are contradictory accounts from the authorities of both countries and from human rights organisations, some of which remain unresolved to this day.
None of this changes the status of the cities. Between Spain and Morocco it has been blocked for decades, and neither side has much interest in escalation. Morocco is closely tied to the EU economically and in migration policy, and Spain has no wish to open a negotiation about its own sovereign territory.
The result is a frozen condition, the same construction that keeps absurd borders alive elsewhere too. The difference is that here people die.
Ceuta and Melilla are therefore no curiosity of the map. They are the place where a historical constellation and a present-day policy meet. Talk about the fences and you are also talking about the 15th century. Talk about the 15th century and you cannot get past the fences.