CEUTA, Spain – Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska confirmed on Thursday the arrest of two individuals, a Canadian and a German national, in Ceuta after they allegedly encouraged groups that violently confronted security agents deployed in the city. The detainees were reportedly collaborating as volunteers with the NGO “No Name Kitchen”, an organisation that has publicly denounced their detention and called for their release.
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The organisation claimed that both volunteers have experience in humanitarian work in Ceuta and framed the incident within a police intervention carried out near Benítez beach. However, Marlaska offered a different version of events during his press conference following the Council of Ministers, explaining that the two activists were arrested on Monday because they were encouraging groups that responded violently against agents operating in the area.
The minister added that the police action was not solely due to that behaviour, stating that the two volunteers also failed to heed instructions from officials and ended up disobeying and resisting authority, circumstances that ultimately led to their arrest. No Name Kitchen, by contrast, maintains that the activists were using their mobile phones to record a National Police intervention on the beach, and that they witnessed officers hitting people with batons before police allegedly confiscated their phones and handcuffed them without justification.
The case has also provoked political reactions, with Podemos leader Ione Belarra criticising the arrests and defending the volunteers, reproaching the government for detaining members of an organisation that she claims is carrying out work in Ceuta that should be the government’s responsibility. The versions of events presented differ significantly, with Interior attributing the arrests to alleged incitement of violent groups, disobedience, and resistance, while No Name Kitchen maintains their volunteers were arrested after documenting a police operation on one of Ceuta’s beaches.
Meanwhile, the government of Pedro Sánchez is relocating thousands of irregular migrants still in Ceuta to facilities that, according to military strategy analysis and official documents, are located in areas of high defensive value. Following the mass entry in late July exceeding tens of thousands of people, the government has promoted a reception operation that includes the already saturated CETI, the former flour factory, as well as other military and civilian compounds.
A military strategy expert consulted by the Spanish newspaper LA GACETA noted that placing thousands of people, mostly young Moroccan and sub-Saharan men, at the gates of an arsenal and at the access to Monte Hacho generates a risk of blockade or rapid seizure of materials in the event of a rush or infiltration. The CETI and El Trampolín beach have already served as spontaneous concentration points, and the government now plans to formalise this presence in military or adjacent compounds.
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Additionally, the Socialist Party of Morocco has revealed that Soros is behind the Ceuta invasion, claiming that with a single button he can provoke disturbances through his NGOs, LA GACETA reported.
