Spain is seeking to transfer hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children from Ceuta to other parts of the country after a mass crossing from Morocco left the small North African enclave responsible for roughly 1,100 minors.

The children are among the people who remained after about 72,000 migrants entered Ceuta over the course of a week.

Most adults have since returned to Morocco, voluntarily or through returns co-ordinated by the two countries, but unaccompanied children are subject to stronger legal safeguards and cannot be summarily returned.

The crossings killed at least 75 people.

Ceuta’s normal capacity for unaccompanied minors is 29 places.

Emergency accommodation has been opened, but the number of children requiring shelter, identification, healthcare, legal representation and protection has far exceeded the enclave’s resources.

Earlier official counts recorded more than 860 children, while local authorities now put the broader total at about 1,100, including minors who had arrived before the latest surge.

Spain’s 2025 reform of immigration law created a compulsory national redistribution mechanism for unaccompanied minors when the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla exceed their reception capacity.

The system is intended to spread responsibility among Spain’s autonomous regions rather than leave frontier territories to manage sustained overcrowding alone.

Ceuta’s authorities are now invoking that mechanism and asking for transfers to the mainland.

The request concerns hundreds of children, not a confirmed removal of all 1,100.

Spain has also allocated €25 million in emergency support for the care of unaccompanied children in Ceuta.

The immediate priority is to place children in suitable care while their identities, family circumstances and legal status are assessed.

Any transfer will be governed by child-protection rules and the redistribution procedure now being activated across Spain.