Ceuta or Sebta: King Felipe VI's First Visit to North African Enclaves Revives Controversy Over Colonial Legacy, Border Politics and the Influx of 70,000 Migrants

Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are scheduled to arrive in Ceuta on October 13 and travel to Melilla the following day. According to Al Jazeera, this is the first time Felipe has set foot in the two Spanish enclaves on the North African coast since his accession in 2014. The visit comes in the wake of the July mass-migration surge and amid the unresolved long-running sovereignty dispute between Madrid and Rabat over the two cities.

In Arabic, the city is known as Sebta (Sabta in Arabic script, commonly Latinized as Sebta). One city, two languages, two scripts — and behind them a colonial history stretching from that period to the present day. Al Jazeera traced that history: on August 21, 1415, Portuguese King João I led forces that captured Ceuta, ending more than seven centuries of Muslim rule over the city. Ceuta then remained under Portuguese control for over two centuries. Between 1580 and 1640, Portugal and Spain shared a single crown; after Portugal restored its independence in 1640, Ceuta remained in the hands of the Spanish crown, an arrangement formally confirmed by the 1668 Treaty of Lisbon. Melilla's case is different — Spanish forces incorporated the city into the Crown of Castile in 1497.

Morocco has claimed sovereignty over both cities since achieving independence in 1956, regarding Ceuta, Melilla and a number of small surrounding Spanish-controlled territories as "occupied Moroccan territory." Spain, for its part, classifies Ceuta under the current constitution as an autonomous municipality, with its Statute of Autonomy explicitly treating Ceuta as an integral part of the Spanish state. The two positions are mutually irreconcilable, and history offers no easy answer — the pre-1415 order of rule was not the nation-state system as it exists today, and Ceuta's present legal status rests on the Iberian rule that followed.

Ceuta's importance far exceeds its size. Although treated as Spanish territory, it does not belong to the EU customs union; the frontier between Ceuta and Morocco is also the external border of the Schengen Area. This dual identity has made Ceuta a frontline of European border policy and a persistent item on the bilateral agenda between Madrid and Rabat.

The July crisis thrust the issue back into the international spotlight. According to Reuters, on July 30 more than 72,000 migrants surged from Morocco into Ceuta — a figure rarely matched at any European border. Ceuta is the external border of the Schengen Area, and the EU member states bear direct responsibility for its management; the crossing of that border by more than 70,000 people in a single day is itself enough to expose the structural fragility of European border politics.

For Madrid, the enclaves are simultaneously a symbol of sovereignty and a governance burden; for Rabat, the claim has never been abandoned, though it has never been pursued by military means. Felipe's exceptional visit is no coincidence in its timing: traveling to the scene in person after the border crisis is both a response to the domestic assertion of sovereignty and a signal to Rabat. The official agenda of the visit has not been released, but the intent is unmistakable.

The name itself reflects the city's complex identity. Citing the usage of Sebta, Al Jazeera noted: "Using Sebta does not automatically amount to a political statement; it is also simply the Arabic name of a city." But the choice of which name to use, it added, "can carry political resonance, because Morocco claims sovereignty over the city." Ceuta — a city geographically embedded in Africa, legally belonging to Iberia, and administratively enjoying a special border status — is, in its very existence, a living artifact of the colonial legacy.