Melilla births plummet 77 percent over decade amid Morocco border restrictions

In 2025, the city of Melilla recorded 691 births through its public health services, marking a 77% decline compared with a decade earlier, when births stood at around 3,001 in 2015. The figures were provided by a spokesperson for the regional directorate of the Institute for Health Services Management, in a statement to Europa Press on Monday.

The spokesperson noted that the current figures stand in sharp contrast to those of ten years ago, when nearly half of all births were to women crossing from Morocco, facilitated at the time by open borders.

This sustained decline in birth numbers coincides with the closure of the Morocco–Melilla border in March 2020, a measure introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the border partially reopened in May 2022, strict restrictions remained in place, including the introduction of a visa requirement for residents of the nearby Nador region.

The downward trend is reflected in previous years’ data as well: 763 births were recorded in 2024, 824 in 2022, and 886 in 2021, while 2020 saw a total of 1,196 births.