Ceuta Birth Rate Plummets 31% as COVID Border Closure Halts Moroccan Mothers

Before the border closure, these women went to the University Hospital of Ceuta to have their children. The closure of the border has made it possible to realize the weight of these births in the official statistics of the city, indicate sources from the National Institute for Health Management (Ingesa), the body in charge of health in Ceuta and Melilla.

The city of Ceuta, close to the Moroccan border towns of Fnideq, M’diq and Tetouan, usually tops the national birth rate statistics due to the impact of care for women from these localities.

In 2020, the year the pandemic occurred, the number of births fell by 31% (867 births compared to 1,261 in 2019), due to the inability of these women to cross the border since March 13, 2020 when its closure was decreed. Furthermore, surveys have also revealed that the first baby of the year in Ceuta was, in the majority of cases, the child of a Moroccan woman who crossed the border to give birth in the city.

On Friday, the official journal of the Spanish State (BOE) announced that the borders of Ceuta and Melilla with Morocco will remain closed until March 31 due to the health crisis. Morocco, for its part, only authorizes the repatriation of stranded Spanish citizens on its territory for the moment.