4 min readNew DelhiAug 8, 2026 02:44 PM IST
First published on: Aug 7, 2026 at 06:30 PM IST
The enclave of Ceuta made headlines last week after thousands of migrants crossed into the Spanish territory located on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast. The influx brought renewed attention to the issue of border management and migration – recurring sources of tension between Madrid and Rabat.
Ceuta and Melilla are Spain’s only territories on the African mainland and the European Union’s only land borders with Africa. But why have the two enclaves been at the centre of a diplomatic standoff between Spain and Morocco? What exactly is an enclave?
Enclaves and exclaves
An enclave is a discontiguous part of the territory of a state surrounded by or enclosed within the territory of another state. From the perspective of the surrounding state, the discontiguous territory is called enclave, and from the perspective of the mainland state to which the discontiguous part belongs, it is called exclave.
The term enclave is traced to the pre-Westphalian system during the late Middle Ages. The Treaty of Madrid, signed in 1526, is identified as probably the first diplomatic document to contain the word “enclave”. The word enclave comes from the Latin word inclavatus meaning “shut in, locked up” and clavis meaning a “key”, while the term exclave corresponds to the Latin word exclavo.
Scholars underline the significance of understanding the decisive role played by discontiguity and sovereignty for defining enclave (exclave). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (edited by David L Sills, 17 volumes, 1968) notes that enclaves (exclaves) should be distinguished from contiguous and neutral territories.
Contiguous territories of states which for all regular commercial and administrative purposes can be reached only through the territory of other states are called pene-enclaves (pene-exclaves). In neutral territories, which are often separate from the mainland state, sovereignty is shared between two or more states.
From feudal holdings to colonial borders
History records the creation and continued existence of enclaves during the pre-Westphalian, colonial, and postcolonial periods. Economist Evgeny Vinokurov, in his book A Theory of Enclaves (2007), sums it up into four historical waves.
The first wave is connected to the specifics of the pre-Westphalian period when hundreds of thousands of enclaves existed based on their possession by rulers, dynasties or feudal lords. Some of them continued to exist even after these territories were consolidated into the nation-states.
The second wave of the creation of enclaves occurred with the building of European colonial empires, when Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, the Netherlands, and later Germany built up their empires overseas. The third and fourth waves are related to the collapse of the colonial empires when enclaves and exclaves emerged as the borders were drawn between the former colonies.
Enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla
The enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, geographically part of the continent of Africa, have been under Spanish sovereignty since the 15th century. Melilla has been under Spanish control since 1497, when Spanish nobleman Pedro de Estopiñán seized it. Ceuta, seized by Portugal in 1415, was formally transferred to Spain under the Treaty of Lisbon in 1668 after the end of the union between Spain and Portugal in 1640.
But since gaining independence from France in 1956, Morocco has been maintaining that the territories of Ceuta and Melilla, which it calls “Sebtah and Melilah”, are part of its territory and has been demanding their return.
Thus, the issues around Ceuta and Melilla help explain how enclaves are not merely geographical curiosities. Their unusual territorial status can be a source of disputes and can shape the relations between neighbouring states.
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Migrants gather in Ceuta, Spain, following recent mass crossings of migrants on foot and by sea from Morocco into Spanish territory, August 1, 2026. (REUTERS) 
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