Three decades of fences in Ceuta and Melilla: Crisification, externalization and intensification of migration control at the external borders of the EU

The article examines the evolution of the border regimes of Ceuta and Melilla, from Spain's entry to the European Union in 1986 to the present. Despite the non-recognition of the Spanish sovereignty of the cities, nor, consequently, of the legitimacy of the EU borders in Africa, Morocco has become an indispensable actor in the border-migration governance scheme deployed in Ceuta and Melilla, and it has benefitted from this new strategic advantage in the framework of its bilateral relations with Spain and the EU. The logic of outsourcing border control policies has paved the way for a wide range of migration control practices around the North African cities. These practices have been exhaustively scrutinized from academic, journalistic and activist perspectives. Their analysis has shed light, on the one hand, on the logic of exceptionality surrounding the EU border regime in cities, and on the other, on how migrants and activists have challenged, denounced and resisted this regime, thus contributing to its constant reconfiguration. The text concludes by analysing the consequences of two interrelated factors that have acted as vectors of change: on the one hand, the diplomatic-border "crisis" of May 2021, and on the other, the subsequent partial reopening of the Ceuta and Melilla border crossings in May 2022, after two years of closure that began with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both factors have led to a new reconfiguration of cross-border mobility management in the region. As illustrated by the lethal events at the Melilla fence in June 2022, these changes have led to the consolidation of Spanish-Moroccan operational cooperation and to a new upsurge in migratory obstruction practices at the external border of the EU.