Spain’s intelligence services have quietly opened a new front against dissent inside Ceuta and Melilla, targeting residents who openly support Moroccan sovereignty over the two North African enclaves and the Sahara, Spanish daily La Razón reported this week.
According to the newspaper’s sources, security agencies have gone beyond mere surveillance. In several cases, authorities have moved to cancel the residency cards and identification documents of prominent local figures and grassroots activists linked to the pro-Moroccan movement in both cities — a step critics describe as administrative retaliation rather than routine bureaucracy.
The crackdown, sources say, reflects growing unease in Madrid over a persistent current of local opinion in Ceuta and Melilla that openly claims Moroccan identity for the two territories. By stripping activists of their papers, Spanish authorities appear intent on curbing their freedom of movement and weakening their capacity to organize from within the very administrations that govern the enclaves.
What stands out in La Razón’s account, however, is the activists’ reaction. Rather than backing down, those affected have reportedly shrugged off the loss of their Spanish documents. One activist quoted by the paper put it bluntly: allegiance to Moroccan identity and to national sovereignty over the occupied territories matters far more than holding a residency card issued in Madrid.
The episode reopens a long-simmering dispute over the legal status of Ceuta and Melilla, which Morocco has for decades claimed as integral parts of its national territory, citing geographic proximity, shared history and deep-rooted family ties across the border. It also lands at a delicate moment in Rabat-Madrid relations, already strained this week by disputes over the Sahara file and over migration flows toward Spain’s southern coast.
Spain’s Interior Ministry has not issued any public comment on the reported measures targeting pro-Moroccan activists. On the Moroccan side, neither the government nor civil society groups have reacted so far — though the revelations are likely to fuel further debate over civil liberties inside the two occupied enclaves.
