CEUTA, Spain – Three weeks after the mass entry of migrants from Morocco on July 30 and 31, the autonomous city remains mired in chaos as the government searches for ways to manage a situation that shows no signs of being resolved in the short term.
62 Migrants Arrive by Boat at Busy Murcia Cove
The installation of two temporary reception tents at Loma Margarita and the Loma Colmenar embankment has done little to alleviate the crisis, as many people have continued to concentrate at El Trampolín beach, and despite evictions on Thursday and Friday, groups of migrants remain at the site on Saturday, resisting departure for fear of being returned to Morocco, highlighting the difficulties in keeping the settlement cleared.
The autonomous city can no longer accommodate the thousands of migrants remaining from the 72,000 who crossed the border 22 days ago, despite Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares having warned that every person who entered Spain irregularly would be returned to Morocco. The Temporary Stay Centre for Foreigners is at its limit, while the central government and the autonomous city work on expanding reception capacity with new locations across the city, and police sources indicated that many of those remaining at El Trampolín beach may come from groups of migrants scattered across various points of the city.
Of the thousands of migrants still roaming the autonomous city, the government estimates that at least 1,400 are minors, with State Secretary for Youth and Childhood Rubén Pérez Correa noting that many more remain on the streets without identification, evading police for fear of being returned. He described the situation in the field of childhood as one of absolute abnormality, with particular emphasis on the situation of girls, of whom 500 are expected to be transferred to the peninsula within a few weeks.
Hundreds of migrants return to Ceuta’s El Trampolín beach after second clearance and clean-up
The situation has completely overwhelmed Pedro Sánchez’s government, which announced on Friday that Territorial Policy Minister Ángel Víctor Torres would take charge as coordinator of all ministries involved in the humanitarian crisis, including Interior, Inclusion and Migration, Defence, Foreign Affairs, and Youth and Childhood. Since the start of the crisis, various ministers have visited Ceuta in attempts to calm the situation without success, and Sánchez’s decision now reflects a change of plans, effectively conceding to one of the demands of Ceuta’s president Juan Jesús Vivas and the Popular Party, who had been calling for a unified command from the government for several days.
The strategy of appeasing Morocco after the mass entry, by describing the collaboration with the country as exemplary, has also failed to yield results in the short term. On Friday, Morocco’s Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi reaffirmed that Ceuta and Melilla constitute a historical and geographical right of Morocco and called for the creation of a dialogue mechanism with Spain to address their future and achieve their return to the bosom of the homeland, proposing the establishment of means of dialogue including a commission on the matter. Spain’s Foreign Ministry responded clearly, stating that Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish cities bordering Spain and the EU, form part of Spain’s internationally recognised territorial integrity and sovereignty, and are equally integral parts of EU territory. The crisis continues to test diplomatic relations between the two countries as the humanitarian and security situation in Ceuta remains unresolved.
