Vatican newspaper, Spanish bishops’ official warn against politicization of Moroccans in Ceuta

August 03, 2026

As most of the 60,000 Moroccans who surged into the Spanish city of Ceuta returned to their native land, the Vatican newspaper and a Spanish episcopal conference official warned against politicizing the incident.

“The causes of the events in the Spanish exclave are undoubtedly manifold and complex,” staff journalist Valerio Palombaro wrote in the most prominent front-page article in the newspaper’s August 1 edition. “In any case, Spain is approaching the crucial 2027 elections, and the ‘invasion’ of Ceuta demonstrates once again how the migration issue is too often used as a tool for political ends.”

Likewise, Father Fernando Redondo Pavón, director of the Department of Migration of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, warned against using the incident as a “political weapon” to “criminalize migrants” or “stoke fear.” As the priest called for the “dignified treatment for migrants under all circumstances,” he said that the Church wishes to “place the focus on the humanitarian question.”

 

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Further information:

• El director de Migraciones de la Iglesia española llama a respetar “la dignidad” de las personas migrantes y a no utilizarlas como “arma arrojadiza” (Noticias Obreras, 7/31/26)
• “Invasione” finita (L'Osservatore Romano, 8/1/26)