Border Closure and Visa Rules Slash Births in Spanish Enclave of Melilla by One-Third

The Territorial Directorate of the Institute of Health Management (INGESA) under the Ministry of Health indicated that the Melilla health center closed the year 2022 with 826 births, "which confirms the downward trend recorded over the past seven years, the number of births having reached a record of 3,001 in 2015." It then went to 2,946 in 2016, 2,799 in 2017, 2,564 in 2018 and 2,476 in 2019.

But since the closure of the border with Morocco in March 2020, births have dropped sharply at the Melilla hospital, reports Europa Press, specifying that they went from 2,476 in 2019 to 1,996 that year and to 886 in 2021, a drop of a third.

This year 2023, the first baby has not yet been born in the autonomous city, an INGESA spokesperson assured. The last of 2022, a girl named Alma, was born on December 31 at 2 p.m.