Between 700 and 1,000 minors remain on the streets of Ceuta a month and a half after the massive entry.

The European Pact on Migration and Asylum has been fully in force in the European Union since June 12, 2026, and does not require a classic “ratification” by the Spanish Parliament. In Spain, its implementation is being articulated through a package of regulatory reforms, which as of today (September 2026) is mainly in the phase of government draft bills and parliamentary political oversight, with some pieces already approved at the regulatory and legislative level.

Current situation in Spain

1. Status of the Pact at the European level

According to the European Commission, the Pact was approved in May 2024 and has been applied since June 12, 2026, as a package of nine regulations and one directive covering border control, asylum procedures, reception conditions, returns, and crisis management. Being mostly regulations, they are directly applicable and Spain must adapt its legal system for aspects that require internal law or operational development.

2. Spanish legislative package: still in draft bill phase

On August 25, 2026, the Council of Ministers approved in the first round two major draft bills explicitly linked to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum:

• Draft Organic Law amending Organic Law 4/2000, on Foreigners. It adapts the law to the new European framework and:
  • Introduces a mandatory triage procedure for those who cross the border irregularly, including medical examination, vulnerability detection, identification, biometric data collection, and security control.
  • Sets a limit of 72 hours for this triage (below the 7 days allowed by the Pact), extendable only by individualized judicial decision.
  • Regulates a border return procedure, to be executed within a maximum of 12 weeks for those not entitled to international protection.
  • Allows asylum denial to include the return decision and the obligation to leave the country.
• Draft new Asylum Law. The 2009 law is not reformed; instead, a new regulation is designed to align the entire international protection system with the Pact:
  • Defines in more detail the phases of access to the procedure (expression of will, registration, formalization) and their deadlines.
  • Introduces an accelerated procedure with resolution within a maximum of three months.
  • Regulates the border procedure with a maximum period of 12 weeks, during which the person remains at the disposal of the authorities before formal entry into the territory.
  • Develops the concepts of first country of asylum, third safe country, and safe country of origin and strengthens the contentious-administrative route, generally eliminating the prior administrative appeal.

Both texts are still in the phase prior to their submission to the Cortes: they must obtain reports from the Council of State, CGPJ, and other consultative bodies before being approved again by the Council of Ministers as bill projects. Therefore, they have not yet formally started parliamentary processing in the Congress and Senate.

3. Already approved regulations and other related initiatives

• At the regulatory level, Royal Decree 1155/2024, the new Foreigners Regulation, has already been approved and published, later modified by Royal Decree 316/2026, which adjusts the authorization and settlement regime and is part of the adaptation to the Pact.
• Royal Decree-Law 2/2025, on unaccompanied foreign minors and extraordinary migratory contingencies, was ratified and is being processed as Bill Project 121/000055, currently with the amendment period extended until September 23, 2026. Its statement of reasons explicitly links part of its logic to the new European framework.
• Various bills on foreigners, census, asylum, or trafficking have been debated, promoted by different groups, which impact the normative ecosystem of migration and asylum, although they do not constitute the “transposition package” of the Pact.
• In the political oversight sphere, the Senate debated a socialist motion to “continue working on the implementation of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact”, which was rejected, and the Joint Commission for the EU has addressed questions about the National Implementation Plan that Spain sent to Brussels.

Next parliamentary and political steps

In light of the above, the translation of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum in Spain is being addressed through sectoral reforms — asylum, foreigners, border procedures, return, reception — and not through a single “Migration and Asylum Pact law.”

The foreseeable steps are:

• Completion of consultative reports on the draft Asylum Law and amendment of Organic Law 4/2000, and their approval as bills by the Council of Ministers.
• Submission to the Congress of Deputies, where registration, qualification by the Board, and referral to the competent committees (Interior and Labor/Inclusion) will be opened, likely by urgent procedure given the European calendar.
• Presentation of amendments by groups, reports and opinions in committee, with significant scope to introduce changes to the Government’s proposal, especially regarding:
  • Scope and guarantees of triage and border procedures.
  • Definition of safe countries and return conditions.
  • Rights regime during processing (reception, work, legal assistance).
• If applicable, second reading in the Senate, where there is already a highly polarized political dynamic around the European pact and regularization policies.
• Subsequent deployment of regulatory norms and operational adjustments (ministerial orders, triage protocols, organization of border centers, coordination with autonomous communities and local entities).

In summary, the Pact already governs in Spain as EU law, but the parliamentary processing of the major national adaptation laws (new Asylum Law and amendment of the Foreigners Law) has not yet formally begun in the Cortes; it is expected to start in the coming months, and that will be the key phase in which Congress and Senate specify the degree of alignment — or guarantee-based nuance — of Spain with respect to the new European framework.

According to current regulations, the powers of the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory are mainly defined in Royal Decree 829/2023, of November 20, which restructures ministerial departments, and are complemented by the basic organic structure established in Royal Decree 139/2020, of January 28 and its amendments, as well as by Law 20/2022, of October 19, on Democratic Memory regarding the substantive content of memory policies.

1. General framework of the department

Royal Decree 829/2023 includes the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory among the departments of the General State Administration and, in the relevant excerpt, expressly establishes that:

• “The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory is responsible for proposing and executing the Government’s policy on territorial policy, territorial organization of the State, and relations with autonomous communities and entities that make up local administration.”
• “The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory is also responsible for the proposal and execution of the Government’s policy on historical and democratic memory.”
• The Ministry is structured into two superior bodies:
  • The State Secretariat for Territorial Policy.
  • The State Secretariat for Democratic Memory.

As head of the department, the minister exercises these material powers and, additionally, the general functions of Government members provided in Law 50/1997, of November 27, on the Government (department management, proposal of regulations, promotion of administrative action, etc.), to which Royal Decree 829/2023 itself refers.

2. Powers in territorial policy

In the field of territorial policy, the legislation places the minister as responsible for:

• Designing and executing the Government’s policy on the territorial organization of the State, that is, the model of territorial distribution of power between the State and the autonomous communities.
• Directing the Government’s relations with the autonomous communities, including preparation and monitoring of sectoral conferences, bilateral commissions, and other State-community cooperation bodies.
• Promoting coordination of the General State Administration in the territory through government delegations and sub-delegations, and cooperation instruments with local entities.
• Channeling conflicts and mechanisms for competence adjustment (e.g., in interaction with the Generalitat-State Bilateral Commission or other bilateral commissions regulated by ministerial order) regarding the distribution of competences between the State and autonomous communities.
• Interacting with entities that make up local administration (municipalities, provincial councils, island councils), promoting cooperation frameworks and participating in bodies where the State’s presence in the local sphere is articulated.

These functions are developed and detailed through organic structure royal decrees (Royal Decree 139/2020 and successive amendments), which assign to State Secretariats, general secretariats, and directorates general tasks such as managing government delegations, coordinating sectoral conferences, or preparing cooperation agreements.

3. Powers in Democratic Memory

In the field of Democratic Memory, the minister assumes the “proposal and execution of the Government’s policy on historical and democratic memory,” a formulation included in the initial article of powers of Royal Decree 829/2023 and which had already been shaped for memory in the modifications of the Presidency’s organic structure (Royal Decree 426/2022 and Royal Decree 373/2020).

This attribution is now understood in direct connection with Law 20/2022, on Democratic Memory, which configures the substantive content of these policies. Based on what this law establishes, ministerial powers in democratic memory include, materially:

• Promoting public policies of democratic memory as the State’s responsibility for recognition, reparation, and dignification of victims of the coup d’état, the Spanish Civil War, and the dictatorship.
• Coordinating actions for search, location, exhumation, and identification of victims of forced disappearance or extrajudicial execution, in collaboration with autonomous communities and local entities, within the framework of plans and programs provided in Law 20/2022.
• Defining and applying measures of recognition and reparation (recognition declarations, annulment or review of sanctions, tributes, commemorative acts, etc.) entrusted to the State by the law.
• Promoting the re-signification of memory sites linked to Francoism and repression (such as the entire Valley of Cuelgamuros), guiding their future use according to democratic values defined by the law.
• Encouraging research, preservation of archives, and educational dissemination of democratic memory through programs, agreements, and grants to entities and projects dedicated to recovering and transmitting that memory.

The State Secretariat for Democratic Memory, dependent on the minister, operationally assumes many of these functions: regulatory development of the law, management of coordination instruments with other administrations, calls for aid, and symbolic and educational recognition actions.

4. Summary

In sum, current regulations place the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory as the authority responsible for two major blocks of powers:

• On one hand, territorial policy and territorial organization of the State, including institutional relations with autonomous communities and local entities and coordination of the General State Administration in the territory.
• On the other, historical and democratic memory, that is, the design and execution of state democratic memory policies developed by Law 20/2022, from victim reparation and exhumations to the re-signification of sites and promotion of memory as a civic value.

All these powers are exercised within the general framework of the Government Law and ministerial structure royal decrees, which specify the internal organization necessary to carry them out.

In Ceuta, there is no specific and different regime for the protection of migrant minors: the general Spanish child protection system applies, implemented by the Autonomous City as the public entity responsible for child protection. The requirements for a migrant minor (especially unaccompanied) to access the system are not so much “entry conditions” as legal assumptions that oblige integrating the child into that system.

1. Basic legal framework

• Organic Law 1/1996, on the Legal Protection of Minors (LO 1/1996), amended by Law 26/2015 and LO 8/2015: defines the best interests of the child, situations of risk and neglect, and the assumption of guardianship by the public entity.
• Organic Law 4/2000, on Foreigners (LO 4/2000): dedicates a specific provision to unaccompanied foreign minors (MENA), regulating identification, repatriation, and residence.
• Law 26/2015: introduces the presumption of minority in case of doubt and strengthens the consideration of foreign minors as rights holders regardless of their administrative situation.
• Framework Protocol on certain actions regarding MENA, approved by Agreement of July 22, 2014, and published by Resolution of October 13, 2014: develops, in compliance with the Foreigners Regulation (art. 190), actions from location to placing the minor at the disposal of the public protection entity and documentation, also applicable in Ceuta.

2. Personal requirements of the minor

For a migrant minor to access the protection system in Ceuta, these elements generally must concur:

• Being under 18 years old. Since the 2015 reform, a presumption of minority is established when majority cannot be reliably proven, until it is determined through appropriate tests (LO 1/1996 and Law 26/2015).
• Being foreign (not a Spanish national, usually from a third country outside the EU). LO 1/1996, after the 2015 reform, recognizes that all foreign minors in Spain, regardless of their administrative status, have the right to education, healthcare, and basic social services and benefits “under the same conditions as Spanish minors.”
• In the typical case of MENA, being unaccompanied: lacking a legally or factually responsible adult who takes charge, with risk of neglect, according to the Framework Protocol and LO 4/2000.
• Being located in Spanish territory, which includes:
  • Entry through border crossing or fence in Ceuta.
  • Interception at sea or arrival on the coast.
  • Detection in the city itself in a situation of abandonment or street presence.

3. Situation of risk or neglect

LO 1/1996, complemented by Law 26/2015, distinguishes between risk situation and neglect situation. In the typical case of the unaccompanied migrant minor in Ceuta, the absence of parental references and lack of adequate care usually fit into neglect.

The law obliges the public entity (in Ceuta, the Autonomous City) to investigate the facts of neglect and, in case of neglect, to automatically assume guardianship by operation of law, with the consequent separation of the minor from the risk situation. This declaration is the key legal premise for full integration into the protection system (centers, foster care, educational programs, etc.).

4. Specific procedure for migrant minors

The 2014 Framework Protocol, based on the Foreigners Regulation, details the phases that, in practice, act as the “gateway” to the system:

• Location and initial police intervention: Security Forces (in Ceuta, Civil Guard and National Police Corps) identify the person as a possible unaccompanied foreign minor.
• Immediate notification to the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office and the public protection entity, as required by both LO 4/2000 and LO 1/1996.
• Age determination when in doubt: medical or documentary tests under Prosecutor supervision, applying the presumption of minority until a firm result exists.
• Transfer and delivery to Ceuta’s child protection services under provisional custody; this delivery cannot be conditioned on the minor’s administrative status.
• Registration in the MENA Registry (RMENA) and assignment of NIE, according to the Framework Protocol.
• Declaration of neglect and assumption of guardianship by the public entity, when the absence of family capable of taking charge or the impossibility of safe return is confirmed.

5. Effects of immigration status and documentation

LO 1/1996 (article relating to foreign minors) and LO 4/2000 (article on MENA) impose that, once guardianship is assumed by the public entity, the General State Administration must:

• Provide, as quickly as possible, documentation accrediting the minor’s situation.
• Grant a residence permit, whose effects are retroactive to the moment the minor was placed at the disposal of protection services, once the impossibility of return with family or to the country of origin is proven.

Additionally, the residence of minors under public guardianship is declared regular for all purposes, and lack of residence authorization cannot prevent enjoyment of the rights corresponding to the minor.

6. Application in Ceuta

In Ceuta, these requirements and procedures are fully applied: the City exercises the function of public protection entity, and the State cooperates financially (for example, through royal decree grants for the reception of unaccompanied migrant children and adolescents) and in matters of documentation and immigration.