Visibilization of the Human Migrant: Is an Alternative Border Possible?
At the furthest corners of Europe, two isolated territories, Ceuta and Melilla are more than just borders. They are legacies of colonialism and places where migration has been framed as a threat. Still, beyond the official narratives, local organizations tell another story, a story made of people. They foster an alternative representation of migration and people on the move at the borders by highlighting the humanity involved in the migration process and the principles that should guide it.
Ceuta and Melilla lie on the borders of Spain and the European Union. These isolated territories have long contributed to the way borders are imagined and enforced both nationally and at the EU level. They represent the Spanish colonial legacy on the African and Moroccan territory, constantly reflecting economic, cultural and longstanding political inequalities. Here, numerous actors are involved in the governance of the borders and the movement of people across them.
The enclaves’ municipalities are autonomous. However, the national state asserts its institutional presence through the Guardia Civil and the Policia Nacional, national police forces on these borders. In addition, since the wave of Europeanization and the implementation of Schengen within Spain, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) is also present on these territories, which have become EU borders.
Migration as an Attack
As you might imagine – especially if you have followed the developments of the EU and its member states’ migration governance over the last decade – institutional narratives of migration and people on the move crossing the enclaves have been highly centred on their securitization in the last decades. When looking at the disruptive events on these borders, such as those I investigated recently, we discover ways of framing migration that are deeply managerial, enhancing its bureaucratization as a process and the invisibilization of its human side.
In several instances, institutional narratives even report disruptions linked to migration through a vocabulary associated with warfare. Amongst others, a clear example of this association can be found in the statements made by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), and other ministers of his Government on June 24, 2022, the day of the Melilla massacre at the hands of Moroccan and Spanish police forces. On this occasion, Pedro Sánchez described the moment as critical to “ensure Spanish territorial integrity,” calling for the intervention of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to respond to migrants “attacking” the Spanish border.
Writing an Alternative Story
However, there is a part of the civil society in these enclaves that tells us different stories of the border. Through my research, I came into contact with non-governmental organizations operating in these territories and working with people on the move, which offered alternative representations of migration. The stories they tell have migrants as protagonists, not threats without a name or face, but human beings with specific backgrounds, trajectories ahead, and lives to be lived with dignity.
I define these civil society actors as “independent activist organizations” (IAOs), bringing forward a framing which challenges the institutional bureaucratic approach and underlines the humanity in migration, by using terms related to protection and specific human rights concerning people on the move. They describe people on the move through characteristics that may refer to their mobility intentions, but also other characteristics unique to the human being beyond the category of a “migrant.”
Representatives of the independent organizations refer to men, women, and minors: “We mostly work with minors, we give information to the youngsters who are afraid of what might happen to them. They get scared due to misinformation when they hear that something has happened to someone (…).” One representative discusses the authorities’ urgency—a kind of “fetishism”—in categorizing human beings first and foremost as migrants. “(…) They are not minors to their eyes [the eyes of the authorities]. They are criminalized before everything else. Minors are here treated like adults.” While the human appears invisible to the authorities, IAOs enact on these borders a governance that takes into consideration the human beyond the migrant.
“Sus Cuerpos Cayeron, Nuestra Memoria Los Levanta” (Their Bodies Fell, Our Memory Lifts Them Up)
In both life and death, these organizations highlight a framing of people on the move, first and foremost focused on their humanity. Every year since 2022, on June 24, the day of the brutal attack by the Moroccan police forces on migrants attempting to cross to Spain at the abandoned border crossing of Barrio Chino, these organizations are at the heart of the coordination of commemorative acts.
On this day, the known names of the dead and missing were pronounced out loud. The people taking part in the commemorative event were asked to attach flowers to the walls of Barrio Chino, connecting the ritual of honouring the death of loved ones and writing messages to the humans whose lives were brutally taken away by the border, as national and supranational institutions have been constructing it.
These acts are crucial in the way that they break the post-massacre violence perpetrated through impunity for the massacre and the institutional unwillingness to investigate, and try to identify all the deceased and disappeared. The commemoration acts communicate that there is a community out there that still remembers. In addition to remembering, these acts commemorate and honour the lives lost at the border, which, as recent developments have shown, were deliberately created and governed with the intention of harming and killing human beings.
“Their bodies fell, our memory lifts them up” is one of the many slogans presented through the commemorative acts, highlighting the ongoing commitment to remember to not allow violence to be perpetrated through silence and oblivion. From documenting migration narratives and community governance to commemoration acts for the innocent lives killed at the border, these organizations – and the diverse people behind them – strive to make sure that migrant lives are visible and matter.
Anna Marino is a Doctoral researcher at the nccr – on the move, the University of Neuchâtel working on the project “Narratives of Crisis and Their Influence in Shaping Discourses and Policies of Migration and Mobility,” which aims to better understand the role of crisis narratives in the context of human mobility governance.
This blog contribution was originally published by Eurac Research – science blogs « Mobile People & Diverse Societies” on August 21, 2025, and adapted to fit the nccr – on the move blog format.
References:
–Marino, Anna, 2025. EuroMedMig Working Paper Series 12 : Narrating crises of Europe’s southernmost borderscapes: the case of Melilla and Lampedusa. EuroMedMig.
–Marino Anna, Hategekimana Vestin, 2025. Framing Migration and Migrants Through Border Crises: The Case of Ceuta and Melilla. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies. Vol. 23, n° 3, pp. 384‑403.
Images from fieldwork conducted in Melilla on the 24th of June 2025.
