Brussels: Ceuta’s leader Juan Jesus Vivas informed EU lawmakers at the European Parliament on Thursday that approximately 100 individuals lost their lives during last week’s border surge. Vivas expressed that the city is still grappling with the aftermath of the incident, particularly with unaccompanied migrant minors who remain in Ceuta, and described the situation as “unsustainable,” appealing for government intervention.

According to Deutsche Welle, Vivas’s visit to Brussels follows a week after an estimated 72,000 migrants attempted to cross the border between Morocco and Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta. This event has sparked tensions among several EU countries and Madrid, with Italy suspending the Schengen free-travel pact with Spain. On Wednesday, the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras reported that 141 people had died on July 30, with the discovery of 63 bodies in Morocco and 78 in Ceuta.

The Spanish government announced that almost all migrants had returned to Morocco, but Vivas highlighted that between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants remain in Ceuta. He noted that Ceuta lacks the necessary security resources to manage the ongoing situation, criticizing the insufficient deployment of security forces and the lack of reinforcement in immigration services needed to handle border rejections.

Morocco has expressed readiness “to work towards identifying unaccompanied minors with a view to their return to their homeland,” as reported by state news agency MAP. It is estimated that hundreds of unaccompanied minors in Ceuta are facing inadequate access to food, water, shelter, and sanitation. Jose Miguel Morales, head of Federacion Sur Acoge, a migrant rights group from southern Spain, highlighted the vulnerability of these children, some as young as ten years old, to abuse and exploitation.

The charity Save the Children has called for the registration of all minors, warning of the heightened risks of violence, trafficking, and exploitation faced by girls. Following a similar migration crisis in the Canary Islands in 2025, Spain enacted immigration law reforms requiring the redistribution of unaccompanied minors from overburdened territories within 15 days of case completion. However, this redistribution is likely to face opposition from regions led by the center-right Popular Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party. Spain’s socialist government has cautioned against such resistance, with Deputy Prime Minister Carlos Cuerpo emphasizing that all regional governments “must comply with the law just like everyone else.”