Why are Ceuta and Melilla Spanish?

The Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla are Europe’s only landmasses in continental Africa.

Their borders with Morocco are the only physical borders between Europe and Africa, and they have for centuries existed as places of contested sovereignty that ebb and flow alongside other political tensions in the region.

Humanitarian crises in Ceuta and Melilla have made headlines in recent years as thousands have attempted to cross the border into Spain from adjacent Morocco, whose leaders refer to them as the occupied "Sebtah and Melilah".

But what’s the backstory to Ceuta and Melilla? Where are they? Why are they Spanish, and are they politically relevant today?

Where are they?

Ceuta and Melilla are technically Spanish autonomous cities on mainland Africa in a similar way to Catalonia and the Basque Country are in mainland Spain.

Ceuta is bordered by Morocco on Africa’s northern coast, sitting on the boundary between the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans. It sits about 17 km away from Cádiz province across the Strait of Gibraltar, and is just 18.5 km2 with 76,000 inhabitants. 

Melilla sits 250 km further eastwards down the coast towards Algeria, and is just 12.3 km2 with a population of 86,000.

History

In the 5th century Ceuta and Melilla were colonised by the Carthaginians, then the Greeks, and finally the Romans.

From the 7th century, Ceuta was ruled by competing Berber and Arab dynasties, and in the 8th century both Ceuta and Melilla were port towns used as launch-pads for the Moorish conquest of the Iberian peninsula that would last for centuries and stretch as far north as Galicia. 

Melilla first fell under Spanish rule in 1497, invaded as part of the Christian reconquista of the peninsula that ended in the late-fifteenth century, and Ceuta, which was a Portuguese territory from 1415, was given to Spain under the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668.

Both Ceuta and Melilla were attacked intermittently by North African forces throughout the next century and became heavily fortified. They also served as strategic hubs for trade because of their advantageous locations linking the Mediterranean with the Atlantic.

For centuries and even to this day, they have had a sizeable Spanish military population living there, and at a time both territories served as a type of penal colony for convicts banished from the Iberian peninsula. 

Why are Ceuta and Melilla still Spanish?

In the 1930s, Spanish troops stationed in Ceuta and Melilla were some of the first to rebel against the government and played a key role in Franco’s seizure of power.

When Morocco finally gained its independence in 1956 after decades of rule by the French and Spanish, Spain refused to include Ceuta and Melilla in any negotiations and they remained Spanish territories.

Morocco has made several sovereignty claims to the territories since gaining independence.

In 2002, tensions flared when Moroccan soldiers occupied the Spanish-controlled Parsley Island off the coast of mainland Morocco. They were eventually removed by force by the Spanish navy.

Spanish King Juan Carlos - himself no stranger to controversies - infuriated Moroccans by making an official state visit to Melilla in 2007, and in recent years the territories have also played a role in politics.

Spaniards who believe that Ceuta and Melilla should remain Spanish argue that both territories were part of Spain for more than 400 years before Morocco gained independence, considering their separation from Spain based only on their geographical location as non-negotiable as that of the Canary Islands, which have been Spanish since the 15th century. 

Unlike Gibraltar, which was given the status of colony by the UN in 1967, Ceuta and Melilla have not been classified as such by the United Nations given that they're fully integrated into Spanish governance and administration. 

"Rabat knows well that it has no legal route to substantiate its claim (over Ceuta and Melilla), only a political one, and for this reason in principle it will never go to the International Court of Justice to reactivate a claim that has been frozen in the United Nations since 1975," writer and analyst Ángel Manuel Ballesteros told El Faro de Ceuta.

In the last several years both the borders in Ceuta and Melilla have been the focus of attempts by refugees and asylum seekers from all over Africa, and the Spanish government’s treatment - including its illegal ‘pushback’ strategy - has earned it condemnation from human rights and refugee groups.

In March 2022, Ceuta became the focus of international news when as many as 10,000 people crossed the border from Morocco in a matter of days. The migration crisis was back in the news again in late June after at least 18 African migrants died when a huge crowd tried to cross into Melilla.

This came at the height of tensions between Madrid and Rabat, and it is believed that Moroccan border guards simply left their posts in a deliberate - and rather callous - negotiating tactic to instigate a humanitarian crisis after they were angered that Spain had treated Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario Front, a separatist group that campaigns for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco, in a Ceuta hospital.

There is no indication at present that Spain will ever be willing to renounce Ceuta or Melilla as a bargaining chip over a dependence on natural gas supplies from the Maghreb or any possible future diplomatic spat between Morocco and Algeria, Spain and Algeria or Spain and Morocco.

READ ALSO: Why Spain’s Western Sahara U-turn is a risky move with no guarantees

But what does seem clear is that when it comes to controlling immigration from the African continent, Ceuta and Melilla are somewhat of an Achilles' heel for Spain which Moroccan authorities are prepared to take advantage of.