CEUTA, Spain – The migration crisis in Ceuta has escalated into a direct confrontation between the Official College of Physicians of Ceuta (COMCE) and the Ministry of Health, with doctors demanding an urgent visit from Minister Mónica García and denouncing a “healthcare catastrophe,” while the ministry rejects claims of collapse and insists that care for the population remains normal.
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The Colegio Oficial de Médicos de Ceuta (COMCE) describes a system under severe pressure, with emergency services having “tripled or quadrupled,” reaching “peaks of 1,300 attendances in a single day.” The city, according to COMCE president Enrique Roviralta, is experiencing a “catastrophic situation; sanitary, humanitarian, social, and economic.” Roviralta argues that the crisis has occurred in Ceuta’s only hospital, which maintains half its beds closed and a significant portion of its staff on vacation: “We are with seven doctors on a day shift, without external reinforcement, attending all types of emergencies.”
The president of the Spanish Medical Association (OMC), Tomás Cobo, has echoed these concerns, calling for a unified command to coordinate the response to the elevated pressure. Cobo visited Ceuta to show the “absolute support” of all Spanish medical colleges to the local one, meeting with emergency, surgery, and internal medicine professionals to learn firsthand about the consequences of the humanitarian emergency. He also highlighted the particular vulnerability of minors staying in makeshift facilities, warning of the risk of exploitation and criminal networks.
In response, Health Minister Mónica García sent a letter to COMCE on Tuesday denying the existence of a collapse, stating that current data “are far from corresponding to the condition of ‘health crisis,’ ‘health collapse,’ or ‘health catastrophe.'” She defended that the management of the National Institute of Health Management (INGESA) has allowed “care for the Ceuta population not to have been altered or delayed” through the activation of special devices. García mentioned a reinforcement of INGESA with “more than 60 professionals who will be, for the moment, until August 31,” and stressed that by August 10, only 26 migrants were hospitalized out of 175 available beds, with 113 occupied by August 12.
Los Colegios de Médicos de toda España apoyan a los profesionales de Ceuta frente al abandono de Mónica García https://t.co/BaqOWXX2qd vía @eldebate_com
— Juan Llor (@JuanLlor1920) August 13, 2026
COMCE, however, warns of a “potential epidemiological problem, of very high risk” due to the presence of thousands of people in improvised spaces without adequate health and hygiene conditions. Roviralta points especially to the situation in areas where migrant groups remain concentrated and alerts to the detection of intestinal cases under study. “When the outbreak appears, it will be too late,” he warns. The Ministry, meanwhile, states that “diagnostic and epidemiological studies are being carried out for febrile and intestinal cases (…) in collaboration with the Ceuta authorities,” and accuses “alarmist sources” of attempting to sow confusion.
COMCE claims that professionals have been subjected to a “daily and constant stress” situation that is “leaving physical and psychological marks” on staff, and criticizes the lack of activation of “any contingency plan” or specific protocols. They call for a permanent crisis cabinet with coordination between several ministries and a unified command, as well as the deployment of extraordinary resources similar to those mobilized for major emergencies: “This needs to be treated like fires; with external means, Health, Defense, the UME…,” they state. “In epidemiology, if you already have all the data to foresee a possible outbreak, you must not wait for a case to appear,” they add.
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The College also demands the urgent presence of Minister Mónica García, a request that takes on particular relevance given that health care in Ceuta depends directly on the Ministry of Health through INGESA. Despite repeated requests, the minister has not yet visited Ceuta, although in her letter to COMCE she assured that she had already planned to travel “in the coming weeks.” The government also defends its investment in Ceuta’s healthcare, claiming that the professional staff has increased by 11.85% since 2018, from 135 to 151 personnel, and that Ceuta has a density of health professionals higher than other similar areas. INGESA reports a stabilization trend in care demand after the peak of 1,149 attendances recorded on July 31, with attendances significantly decreasing in subsequent days, data lower than the average denounced by the opposition.
