In May, Spain was crowned the best country in Europe for LGBTI rights. Two months ago, its North African city of Ceuta became the scene of the largest border crossing in its history. Those two facts now sit uncomfortably side by side.

On Monday, ILGA-Europe published a stark update from Ceuta: at least 126 LGBTI people there are still in urgent need of help, many sleeping rough, some reporting beatings, death threats and homophobic and transphobic abuse, including from people meant to protect them. And today, Spain’s government is debating a decree that rights groups say could make it much harder for them to ever claim asylum.

What happened in Ceuta

Ceuta is a small Spanish city on the coast of North Africa, bordering Morocco. At the end of July, tens of thousands of people crossed into it from Morocco in a matter of days. Estimates differ: ILGA-Europe puts the figure at about 72,000, while Amnesty International says it was more than 80,000, roughly the city’s whole population. Most people later went back to Morocco, but around 10,000 are believed to remain, and at least 141 people were reported dead on both sides of the border, ILGA-Europe says.

Since then, migrants and asylum seekers have faced racist harassment, physical attacks and reports of deliberately set fires. Among the most exposed: 2,383 unaccompanied children, an estimated 500 to 700 of them living on the streets, and around 800 women, some with children, also sleeping rough.

What LGBTI people are reporting

Border Resistance, one of the main collectives working with people on the move in Ceuta, has repeatedly documented the specific risks facing at least 126 LGBTI people there, according to ILGA-Europe. Some were initially not admitted to the city’s reception centres (CETIs), leaving them with no protection or support.

The accounts include:

  • Physical assaults, theft, death threats and degrading treatment while homeless in the woods around the city and inside the centres
  • Reports of military personnel beating people and forcing them to hand over their phones
  • A trans woman who said she was assaulted by military personnel after a group was expelled from a reception centre, and who linked the attack to her being trans
  • Homophobic and transphobic abuse inside reception centres and camps, including by staff, particularly against lesbian and trans women

One testimony describes staff shouting “Lesbians, watch your head.” A trans woman from Morocco told the collectives: “I am afraid and I am not protected.” A gay man facing the threat of deportation to Morocco said: “I cannot keep living while hiding my sexuality and being subjected to insults.”

It’s worth saying plainly why this matters: Morocco’s penal code punishes same-sex relations with up to three years in prison, Human Rights Watch notes. For many queer and trans people in Ceuta, being sent back is not a neutral outcome.

Amnesty’s findings

The wider picture is backed up by Amnesty International Spain, which visited Ceuta from September 10 to 15 and interviewed more than 65 migrants and asylum seekers. It gathered 22 direct testimonies accusing soldiers on patrol of beatings, harassment, humiliation, and taking or breaking people’s phones, and says some cases may amount to torture.

One soldier, Amnesty reports, justified the ID checks and harassment by saying: “Tenemos órdenes para que no se sientan cómodos” (we have orders to make sure they don’t feel comfortable). ILGA-Europe notes that Spain’s Defence Ministry has alerted prosecutors and ordered an internal probe.

Amnesty also acknowledged how hard the situation is for Ceuta and its security forces, while insisting they are bound by national and international human rights law.

The decree on the table today

According to ILGA-Europe, Spain’s Council of Ministers is debating a decree-law on October 6 aimed at speeding up returns from Ceuta. It would:

  • Cut the deadline to apply for asylum to seven days
  • Exclude UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, from the procedure
  • Limit safeguards against removal

Rights groups warn that for people without lawyers, interpreters or internet access, seven days can mean no real chance to apply at all. That hits LGBTI people especially hard: explaining why you fear persecution for who you are, often to a stranger, in a second language, takes time and trust.

It lands in a wider European shift. On October 1, the EU Council approved new return rules that strengthen deportation procedures and allow member states to set up “return hubs” outside the EU, ILGA-Europe notes. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also promised plans to speed up deportations with “time-limited flexibility of standard procedures.”

What ILGA-Europe is asking for

  • Spain: dignified reception for everyone in Ceuta, real access to asylum with individual assessment of each person’s protection needs, independent investigations of the reported abuse, and no returns that expose people to persecution
  • The European Commission: enforce EU asylum law rather than promote faster deportations at the expense of protection
  • MEPs: hold the Commission and national governments to account

Why Spain, of all places

ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map 2026 put Spain first out of 49 countries in May, ending Malta’s ten-year run at the top, thanks to trans-depathologised healthcare, new legal protections and national LGBTI and trans strategies.

Those rights are real, and Spanish activists fought hard for them. Ceuta is a reminder that rights on paper only mean something if they reach the people who need them most, including the ones who arrived last, with nothing, and can’t safely go home.

If you want to help, the collectives on the ground have launched an urgent fundraiser for emergency accommodation, food, water and clothing for LGBTI people sleeping rough in Ceuta, linked from ILGA-Europe’s update.

Sources: ILGA-Europe, “Ceuta, Two Months On” (Oct 5, 2026); Amnistía Internacional España (Sep 30, 2026); ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map 2026 press release; Human Rights Watch. Photo: Xemenendura, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.