Felipe and Letizia visit Ceuta in show of support after migrant crisis

It is their first visit to Ceuta since Felipe became king and the first by a Spanish head of state since 2007, when Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía travelled to both Ceuta and Melilla. The royal couple are also due to become the first monarchs to stay overnight in either autonomous city during Spain’s democratic era, before continuing to Melilla on Wednesday.

The visit combines meetings with local authorities and residents with a tribute to those who died during the July crisis. It also comes at a sensitive moment in relations with Morocco, which claims sovereignty over both Spanish cities on the North African coast.

More than 70,000 migrants entered Ceuta on 30–31 July, an extraordinary influx into a city with around 80,000 inhabitants. Most returned to Morocco within hours, but thousands remained, many spending weeks sleeping on beaches or in the streets. Around 140 people died while attempting the crossing, most drowning as they tried to swim around the border barrier. ALSO READ: Spanish court to investigate deadly Ceuta migrant surge as possible ‘hybrid warfare’ operation. 

Crowds welcome the royal couple

Felipe and Letizia arrived at Ceuta’s heliport at about 12.15pm before travelling to Plaza de la Constitución and walking along Gran Vía towards the city hall, also known as the Palacio de la Asamblea.

Hundreds of residents gathered to greet them, waving Spanish flags and cheering the king. The couple repeatedly stopped to shake hands and speak with well-wishers, taking almost half an hour to cover a stretch of barely 200 metres.

Many in the crowd held up their phones to photograph the monarchs. Some wore T-shirts carrying the slogan: ‘Ceuta is not for sale. Ceuta must be defended’.

At the city hall, members of the Assembly welcomed the couple, who later appeared on the main balcony alongside Ceuta’s president, Juan Jesús Vivas of the People’s Party (PP), to greet the crowds below.

Their programme included a meeting with the city’s government, central government delegate David de la Encina, and Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres, who has overall responsibility for coordinating the response to the migration crisis. Representatives of the National Police and Guardia Civil also attended.

Felipe and Letizia received the keys to the city and a watercolour-tinted architectural engraving of the city hall by local artist Belén Abad de los Santos.

In their entry in the city’s Book of Honour, they described the visit as ‘long desired and overdue’ and acknowledged that ‘there was a debt that we settle today’.

They conveyed ‘the closeness and affection of all Spain’, recognised the ‘difficult’ circumstances Ceuta had endured in recent months and expressed ‘the commitment of the whole country to the future of the people of Ceuta, which is the future of Spain’.

Vivas calls for a return to normality

Vivas thanked the monarchs for visiting at ‘the most difficult moment of our recent history’, describing Ceuta as ‘a pressure cooker that could explode at any time’.

He said their presence would ‘sow confidence where confidence is most needed, confidence to endure and confidence to light the way out of the tunnel’. He also thanked them for ‘having expressed, from the very beginning, concern and indignation at what happened’.

Recalling Ceuta’s historical ties with Spain, Vivas said that when the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain separated, ‘the people of Ceuta at that time’ chose to remain Spanish.

Turning to the consequences of what he called an ‘invasion’, Vivas argued that daily life in the city had fundamentally changed.

‘Ceuta is not what it was; we, the people of Ceuta, have had to change our way of life and have lost security, tranquillity and freedom,’ he said.

He called for a return to normality through the ‘return’ to Morocco of all those who ‘arrived, en masse and illegally’, alongside the ‘adoption of whatever initiatives are necessary so that neither border control nor the economic model nor anything vital to Ceuta depends on a third party’. ALSO READ: Spain had warnings of mass migrant crossings into Ceuta, but not their scale, documents reveal. 

Authorities have provided thousands of places in temporary shelters and cleared the principal beach encampments. However, some migrants continue to sleep in the streets and surrounding hills. ALSO READ: Ceuta clears El Guano migrant camp ahead of royal visit, as pressure on reception centres persists.

The Spanish government maintains that it must comply with international law and assess whether those who remain are entitled to asylum. Hundreds of unaccompanied children also cannot be summarily deported.

The crisis has fuelled anger among residents and increased political pressure on Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ahead of the 29 November general election, in which migration is expected to be a prominent issue. ALSO READ: Thousands march in Madrid over Ceuta crisis, demanding early election and migrant returns. 

School visit and tribute to those who died

The royal programme also included a visit to Vicente Aleixandre nursery and primary school, with time set aside to meet pupils and their parents.

The school reflects Ceuta’s religious and cultural diversity: about 70% of its pupils are Muslim and around 27% Catholic.

Felipe and Letizia were then scheduled to visit the Muslim cemetery of Sidi Embarek for a tribute to those who died trying to reach the city from Morocco in late July. Many of the victims are buried there, some in unnamed graves because they have not been identified.

A gathering with representatives of Ceuta’s civil society at the Parador was due to conclude the day’s programme, with Felipe expected to address those attending.

The king has followed developments in Ceuta throughout the crisis. At its outset, he described the mass crossing as ‘an unacceptable violation’ of a Spanish and European border.

He received Vivas at Marivent Palace in Mallorca on 6 August and has subsequently raised Ceuta’s situation during other engagements, including French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit on 30 September and the king’s trip to Finland last week. ALSO READ: Sánchez apologises to Macron over treaty rejection as leaders reaffirm Spain-France ties.

Diplomatic sensitivities and political criticism

The previous royal visit in 2007 triggered a diplomatic crisis with Morocco. This time, Rabat has made no public statement specifically addressing Felipe and Letizia’s trip.

Nevertheless, tensions surrounding the July influx remain. Spain’s political right has accused Morocco of facilitating the crossings for political reasons, an allegation denied by both Rabat and Sánchez. ALSO READ: Spanish PM backs Morocco over Ceuta migrant crisis as King Felipe visit is announced.

On Friday, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI condemned “the irresponsible statements made by certain political and media circles and their blatant instrumentalisation of the situation”, in an apparent reference to criticism from Spain.

A further issue emerged on Monday when El País reported that Moroccan warships had repeatedly entered waters off Ceuta during and after the influx, describing the incursions as a rare violation of Spanish sovereignty.

Spanish government spokeswoman Elma Saiz acknowledged the incident on Tuesday but played down its significance, referring to ‘a one-off incident that was resolved in a completely normal manner’.

Asked about the possibility of a diplomatic dispute over the royal visit, Spanish government sources said they feared ‘nothing’ and defended the ‘right of the monarchs to visit Spanish territory’. They said issues with Morocco were discussed ‘normally’ through ‘fluid dialogue’.

Meanwhile, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo criticised Sánchez for not accompanying the royal couple.

‘I would have accompanied them,’ he wrote on X, adding that ‘the hope they convey today in Ceuta and wherever they go is what Spain needs to rebuild its future’.