CEUTA, Spain – Firefighters in Ceuta have discovered a settlement used by immigrants inside an old underground military gallery that connects the area around Sarchal beach with the current University Campus of the University of Granada. These facilities formed part of a military barracks for decades and are currently disused.
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The discovery took place on Thursday after Fire Extinction and Rescue Service personnel had to intervene following a fire that broke out inside the tunnels. Access to these old galleries had been walled up for years, although those using the site as a refuge had managed to get in after opening a passage.
Sources from the fire service explained that the occupants managed to access the space after breaking one of the walls blocking the entrance to the underground facilities, allowing them to enter an area that, despite being officially closed, showed numerous signs of having been used for a prolonged period. When firefighters entered to extinguish the flames they did not locate anyone, but during the intervention they confirmed that the galleries had been improvised as a regular refuge. Objects found at various points along the route showed that the place had not been used only occasionally.
Among the items found were mattresses, blankets, pots and food remains, as well as other objects commonly used to stay and sleep in a space for a certain time, with the presence of all these belongings evidencing a continued occupation of the old military tunnels. Added to these objects was a considerable amount of waste accumulated along the underground route, with personnel finding rubbish, containers, bottles, burnt mattresses and waste of various kinds distributed across different areas of the galleries. Some of these remains were precisely in the area where the fire that prompted the firefighters’ intervention had occurred.
According to their account, the operation carried out on Thursday was intended to extinguish the fire declared in the galleries and check the situation of the site, and it was during those tasks that personnel confirmed the space was being used as a settlement. Firefighters also categorically ruled out speculation suggesting these galleries could have some kind of underground connection with Moroccan territory, noting that the tunnels form part of old military infrastructures located in Ceuta and serve to connect different points of the city.
Among those areas are the surroundings of Sarchal beach and the land currently occupied by the University Campus of the University of Granada, a space where facilities belonging to a military barracks were located for decades. Military discontent has grown due to the government’s decision to locate reception camps for immigrants in areas very close to sensitive Army installations, specifically just metres from bunkers containing weapons and explosives in Ceuta.
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Military and Civil Guard commanders expressed concern because intelligence reports identified suspects with extremist and jihadist profiles and alleged Moroccan intelligence agents who infiltrated irregularly during the recent migratory waves. Given the saturation of local reception centres caused by the mass entries of recent months, authorities periodically activate transfers of migrants to different communities on the Iberian peninsula to relieve the humanitarian and logistical pressure on the autonomous city.
