Spain Urges Judicial Council to Expedite Formal Request for Ceuta Court Reinforcements

Administrative steps for judicial appointments

Spain's Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes sent a formal communication to the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) on 24 August 2026, urging the judicial governing body to complete the administrative paperwork required to deploy reinforcement magistrates to Ceuta. In a letter directed to CGPJ Secretary General Miguel Hernández de la Serna, Secretary of State for Justice Manuel Olmedo noted that the central government has funds allocated and is waiting only for the formal transmission of the case file. Release of the budgetary credit requires the petition from the High Court of Justice of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla (TSJA) and the mandatory assessment from the CGPJ Inspection Service.

The ministry has everything ready so that, once you forward the request from the High Court of Justice of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla together with the corresponding Inspection Service report, the budgetary credit authorization will be approved and you can thus continue processing the reinforcements.

Institutional positions and magistrate selection

The correspondence responded to a formal resolution approved on 18 August 2026 by the Permanent Commission of the CGPJ, led by Council President Isabel Perelló. The council asked for two experienced magistrates to reinforce the Civil and Instruction Section of the Ceuta Court of First Instance to manage pending caseloads. Minister Félix Bolaños stated on social media platform X that the central government had initiated the reinforcement proposal in late July 2026.

We already offered it at the end of July and we reiterate it now.

Olmedo included operational guidance on how the judicial seats should be filled. The ministry suggested appointing magistrates from courts or provincial audiences outside Ceuta. If appointments are made from within the local court system, the ministry advised selecting personnel from sections outside civil and investigative duties, or drawing upon substitute judges.

Deployment of technical, forensic and legal personnel

Outside the bench, the Ministry of Justice authorized support personnel to assist court registries and legal services in the autonomous city. Three case processing clerks, one procedural manager, and one judicial assistant will join the municipal courts. The executive also authorized the expansion of on-call duty shifts across local judicial offices.

Support staff have also been integrated into regional prosecution, forensic medicine, and legal representation units. The Ceuta Area Prosecutor's Office incorporated three substitute prosecutors, while the Institute of Legal Medicine added eleven forensic doctors, seven autopsy technicians, and two administrative processing officers. The ministry also approved consecutive schedule extensions for the three permanent legal administration clerks, added five public defense lawyers on duty rotation for foreign nationals, and expanded local translation and interpretation services.

Caseload pressures from the July border surge

The institutional exchange stems from the irregular arrival of approximately 80,000 migrants in Ceuta across 30 and 31 July 2026. The CGPJ Inspection Service warned that the volume of cases had an extraordinary impact on local judicial operations, while the judicial council cited investigations into alleged criminal conduct, including sexual assaults, connected with the arrivals. As of Monday morning on 24 August 2026, the Ministry of Justice had not yet received the formal TSJA dossier from the judicial governing body.