ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the double-border dimension of Ceuta and its impact on the mobility of migrants. It describes the origins and changing characteristics of the city's border securitization process as well as the political geographical specificities of this EU-African territory. The chapter addresses how the strengthening of border controls in the southern EU perimeter has affected the trajectories of sub-Saharan migrants heading for the EU. It scrutinizes the circumstances of those sub-Saharan migrants who find themselves stranded in Ceuta and are consequently forced to face a complex period of waiting before the (EU) law. The Spanish Moroccan border became an external EU border in 1986. The reinforcement of border controls after 2005 made approaching and jumping the Ceuta border fence increasingly difficult for migrants. The perception of the Ceuta border as a more difficultly permeable border certainly influenced mobility patterns. Migrants started to follow alternative routes first towards the Canary Islands and later across the central and eastern Mediterranean routes.
