Ceuta president testifies on July border crisis as Spain prepares emergency asylum measures

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In brief

How it came to this

29 SeptDraft decree surfaces proposing expedited asylum rejections and offshore appeals
30 SeptJuan Jesús Vivas testifies in court as Spain declares national security interest
1 OctLocal police chief and former delegation official scheduled to appear before judge

High Court testimony on border alerts

Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas appeared before the Audiencia Nacional on 30 September to testify as a witness in the judicial investigation into the late July border crossing. Vivas told Judge María Tardón that his administration attempted to contact Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ten times between 27 and 29 July, before Sánchez answered on 30 July. According to Vivas, the regional government warned of an incoming influx after 1,500 people arrived in the days leading up to the crossing, but central government ministers described the events as a humanitarian crisis and rejected requests for emergency declarations, border reinforcements, and unified command.

“What the national government knew is not the same as what the city knew. The city government did know that there was a very notable increase in the number of arrivals in Ceuta. Therefore, this was an alert call that invited preventive measures. Based on the information we had, we requested it. These preventive measures were not taken and we did not know that the invasion would occur.”

Juan Jesús Vivas, president of the autonomous city of Ceuta

The court appearance followed the resignation of Spain's government delegate in Ceuta, Miguel Ángel Pérez Triano, two days earlier. Tardón has admitted Ceuta as a private prosecutor in the case, citing at least 83 deaths during the crossing and noting evidence of permissive conduct by Moroccan security forces. Further testimony is scheduled for 1 October from Ceuta Local Police chief Sebastián Vega and former government delegation official Gonzalo Sanz.

Emergency land allocations and street conditions

On 30 September, the Official State Gazette published a royal decree declaring a situation of national security interest in Ceuta, two months after more than 70,000 people crossed the border on 30 and 31 July. The order designates eight parcels of state-owned land to provide emergency accommodation for migrants who remain in the city. The sites include a parcel at the Ceuta Penitentiary Center less than one kilometer from the Moroccan border, four properties belonging to the Ministry of Defense, and additional plots from the ministries of Housing, Transport, and Ecological Transition.

State land sites allocated for migrant shelter in Ceuta by ministrysites

Data from the article text

Local infrastructure remains overwhelmed, with between 10,000 and 15,000 migrants continuing to sleep on city streets and in overcrowded port facilities. Authorities have recorded 37 reports of sexual assault among migrants, 14 of which involved minors. Many women and unaccompanied children remain without shelter allocations as municipal services struggle to manage the volume of arrivals.

Judicial mobilisation and draft asylum restrictions

To address the operational burden, the governing body of the Audiencia Nacional approved an emergency plan on 30 September placing 43 administrative magistrates across eight sections on permanent guard duty for six months. The court will process appeals stemming from decisions by the Interior Ministry, which continues to deny the vast majority of international protection requests submitted after the July crossing.

The judicial measures coincide with a draft decree prepared by the central government to restrict asylum processing for migrants arriving in Ceuta. The draft would allow the government to require migrants to lodge appeals against rejections from outside Spain if their origin country is deemed safe by the European Union. The proposal also removes mandatory reviews by a commission involving the United Nations refugee agency and revokes residency rights for individuals unreachable for five days or reported for violent conduct. Thirteen non-governmental organisations, including CEAR and Oxfam, have condemned the proposal as a threat to international human rights agreements.