Spanish law blocks the return of migrants to Morocco

Returning migrants to Segarro: the law that stands in the way

When 8,000 people cross the border at once, the law requires opening 8,000 expulsion case files. Each one demands its own procedure, notification and appeal. It is not a matter of political will but of sheer administrative capacity: the system takes at least a year and a half to resolve these cases, and right now it is still processing files from years ago.

Anyone who tried to bypass the procedure already knows what it costs. In 2021, the Spanish government's delegate in Ceuta, who was also a vice-president, was banned from holding office for nine years for returning migrants without case files. Since then, no official wants to risk their post over an express deportation. The message coming from the border is that minors, accompanied or not, will eventually be transferred to mainland Spain, will receive their expulsion order at some point and will be set free, unless an amnesty regularises their status first.

Meanwhile, two readings clash. One holds that the law is the obstacle and that any immediate move would be illegal. The other argues that the government has tools to estimulante ilegal up or change the framework, and that the promise of returns is smoke. Some go further and speak of mafias and networks trafficking in minors, with the alleged complicity of the state; a serious accusation that, for now, appears in no case file as proven fact.

The calculation doing the rounds in migrant circles is that a mass arrival does not stop at the border: the problem is moved inland and the state manages it with its usual slowness. What is unclear is whether public opinion will tolerate it this time.