Ceuta crisis raises questions over Morocco-Spain cooperation before 2030 World Cup

The recent migration crisis in Ceuta has highlighted the diplomatic and humanitarian challenges facing Morocco, Spain and Portugal before they co-host the 2030 World Cup.

The tournament is due to take place in four years across stadiums in Madrid, Lisbon, Casablanca and other participating cities. It will be the first World Cup staged across three continents, with the organisers hoping football can help build a bridge between the two sides of the Strait of Gibraltar.

However, Spanish newspaper MARCA believes the latest events in Ceuta have exposed another, more difficult side to relations between Morocco and Spain. About 49,000 people crossed from Morocco, in north-west Africa, into the Spanish territory in what was the city’s biggest migration crisis since 2021.

At least 24 people died while attempting to make the crossing. In response, the border fence was reinforced and Spain’s Civil Guard and military were deployed.

Writing for MARCA, Gerardo Riquelme described the situation first and foremost as a human tragedy. He also argued that migration flows towards Spain’s North African territories do not happen independently of political circumstances, saying they depend to a significant extent on how Morocco controls its borders.

According to Riquelme, that control has historically been used as a measure of the state of relations between Rabat and Madrid.

The 2021 crisis coincided with the arrival of the leader of the Polisario Front at a hospital in Logrono, Spain, where he was being treated for Covid and had entered under a false identity. Morocco has consistently denied any connection between the two events, while attributing the migration flows to human-trafficking networks, according to Riquelme.

The issue carries particular significance because Morocco, Spain and Portugal will jointly stage the 2030 World Cup. Delivering the tournament will require extensive trust and co-ordination on security, transport, visas and border management.

MARCA’s article therefore questions what guarantees underpin that trust if migration policy can change in response to the diplomatic climate between the two countries.

It argues that Morocco and Spain need to establish a permanent migration framework before 2030. Such an arrangement, the article says, should not depend on the goodwill of any individual government. It would be intended both to protect people who risk their lives at the border and to safeguard the success of a World Cup expected to represent unity.

Spain, meanwhile, should strengthen its co-operation with Morocco, including intelligence-sharing, while maintaining a firm position, the article says.

Ceuta and Melilla are not simply gateways into Spain, it adds. They are also entry points to the European Union and its 27 member states.

The 2030 World Cup will rightly be promoted as a celebration of football and an alliance between civilisations, Riquelme concludes. But, he adds, celebrations are better “when the house is in order”.