Spain expels over 100 Moroccan migrants from Ceuta over crimes, records 7 rape cases after mass entry

Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has revealed that more than 100 migrants have so far been expelled from the occupied city of Ceuta for crimes following the mass entry attempt in late July, noting that authorities recorded 17 sexual assaults, including seven rape cases.

“We currently have seven sexual assaults that constitute rape and 10 other types of sexual assault that do not constitute what we know as rape,” Marlaska said before the Interior Committee of the Spanish Congress of Deputies on Friday, 28.

The minister noted that the victims were mainly vulnerable women, declining to provide any further details.

Spanish Attorney General Teresa Permato previously noted that authorities recorded around 16 sexual assaults, involving 17 victims, most of them minor girls.

Marlaska noted that authorities seek judicial approval to expel people involved in crimes from what Spain considers its territory.

He explained that expulsions can be carried out either by replacing a sentence with mandatory departure from Spain following a fast-track trial or through an administrative procedure under the country’s immigration law, which has been used to expel more than 100 people.

He noted that this type of administrative procedure requires judicial authorization when no fast-track trial is held.

The minister also highlighted that the number of minors registered in Ceuta before July 30 was close to 800 and now stands at around 1500 out of 5,000 migrants currently in the city.

Marlaska highlighted the cooperation of Moroccan authorities, saying they have stopped more than 2,700 irregular sea departures toward the Spanish coast so far in 2026.

On Monday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez ruled out any responsibility on the part of the Moroccan authorities in the sudden influx of migrants who arrived in the two occupied cities a month ago.

Speaking to Cedena SER radio, Sanchez stressed that “no intelligence service with which the Spanish government normally cooperates sheds any doubt, or rather, suggests any doubt, about the involvement in one way or another of the Moroccan authorities.”