Spain has thanked Morocco for the efforts its security services have deployed to tackle the latest mass irregular migration and attempts to cross the Spanish enclave of Ceuta.
The Spanish Interior Ministry lauded the country’s “exemplary” cooperation with Morocco, citing strong migration management cooperation as further proof of the expanding and solidifying ties between the two neighbors.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska will travel to Ceuta in response to the migration crisis, converging Spanish reports indicated, noting that the local government in the enclave had called for an emergency plan to tackle the emergency situation.
Marlaska has notably thanked Morocco for its efforts in recent days in preventing thousands of attempts at irregular migration, with the two countries agreeing to boost cooperation to address the flows.
Morocco and Spain also agreed on the return of the migrants who entered the enclave. The two countries hinted at their shared determination to further strengthen bilateral cooperation and review measures for the handover of all people who penetrated the city.
The news of the agreement came after videos of mass irregular migration attempts and entries, including thousands of Moroccans and other people from different countries entering the enclave.
Spain denounced the human trafficking networks that exploit a court ruling to encourage the flow of undocumented migrants, especially youth.
According to a report by Spanish outlet EFE, Marlaska remains in constant contact with his Moroccan counterpart Abdeloaufi Laftit.
Morocco’s migratory efforts
Morocco has long positioned itself as a strong partner and regional leader in managing irregular migration, with Spain repeatedly emphasizing the kingdom’s crucial role as a strategic partner and its security services’ continued efforts in tackling the issue.
Thanks to Morocco’s cooperation, Spain’s irregular migration flows fell sharply in 2025. In particular, arrivals dropped by 42.6% to 36,775 people, down from 64,019 the previous year. The decline followed a marked improvement in coordination between Madrid and Rabat after the unprecedented diplomatic crisis of 2021, which erupted after Spain decided to host Polisario Front leader Ibrahim Ghali for hospitalization in a unilateral decision caused shock and consternation in Rabat.
The Polisario Front is a separatist group that challenges Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over its southern provinces in Western Sahara.
Spain’s unilateral move triggered a diplomatic crisis that worsened after Spanish political parties and news outlets accused Morocco of blackmail during another mass migration crisis that saw thousands of irregular migrants attempt to enter the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
As the crisis deepened, Spain appeared to Morocco by dismissing Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya. Madrid increasingly opted for de-escalation, opening dialogue channels with Rabat to resolve the political crisis and restore bilateral relations with a neighbor that the Spanish media and political class was now starting to describe as a vital partner and an indispensable ally in the fight against irregular migration.
A major breakthrough came in 2022 when Spain backed Morocco’s Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara. The decision also translated into closer cooperation on migration management and border security.
Since then, Morocco has stepped up maritime surveillance and coastal patrols. The shift is widely seen as decisive in curbing migrant flows along the Atlantic route, long regarded as Europe’s deadliest migration corridor. At the same time, this shift has helped in highlighting the growing effectiveness of Moroccan-Spanish coordination in reducing irregular migration flows.
Indeed, several reports have highlighted Morocco’s growing role in tackling irregular migration and strengthening migration management.
A 2025 report by the Mixed Migration Centre detailed how Morocco has significantly reinforced enforcement mechanisms along migration routes to Europe, helping prevent tens of thousands of irregular crossings since early 2023.
Read also: Spain, Morocco Agree on Return of Migrants Who Entered Ceuta Irregularly
Titled “Beyond Restrictions: How Migration and Smuggling Adapt to Changing Policies Across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the English Channel,” the study argues that Morocco’s strategic position has enabled it to negotiate favorable agreements with both Spain and the European Union.
“Morocco’s ongoing role as both a transit and destination country for migrants has created significant opportunities for it to leverage its position in ‘managing migration’ between mainland Europe and Africa,” the report notes.
In July 2022, the European Union also launched an Anti-Smuggling Operational Partnership with Morocco to strengthen cooperation in combating migrant smuggling networks, addressing irregular migration, and saving lives.
The initiative complements broader EU support worth €1.4 billion through 2027, aimed at supporting reforms and strengthening Morocco’s resilience.
Spanish government officials have repeatedly emphasized the crucial need for Europe to maintain and perhaps even further deepen strategic cooperation with Morocco, to the dismay of leftist intellectuals and opposition parties that continue to back the increasingly sidelined and irrelevant separatist Polisario Front.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez recalled Morocco’s efforts in a February 2026 CNN interview, stating that close coordination with Rabat has “very significantly” reduced irregular arrivals in Spain.
He identified Morocco as an essential strategic partner in regional migration management, attributing the achievement to joint engagement and coordination with origin and transit countries.
Meanwhile, Moroccans are the second-largest national group in Spain’s extraordinary immigration regularization process. The latest data reported by Spanish authorities indicate that Spain has received a total of 1,174,978 regularization applications, and Moroccans accounted for more than 13.3% of all submissions.
The Moroccan community in Spain also tops foreign nationalities in the country in terms of social security affiliation. As of April this year, the total foreign number of foreign workers affiliated with Spanish social security was estimated at 3.24 million. Of these, 404,402 workers were of Moroccan origin.
