Just under a month has passed since the sudden, mass arrival of approximately 80,000 mostly Moroccans and sub-Saharan Africans in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta (population 83,000) on 30 and 31 July. Some 8,000 remain in the city on the North African coast.
The government’s most immediate problem is where to accommodate them. At the moment thousands of migrants are still sleeping rough on the streets or in the surrounding countryside.
Ceuta’s local newspaper, El Faro, reports that the Education Ministry announced last night that when pupils return on 8 September, there will be uniformed security on school routes, at entrances and exits, during break times, and around schools in the afternoons and overnight. The Guardia Civil, national police, local police and the Armed Forces will all be involved. The ministry is also introducing psychological support for pupils and families because it acknowledges that the crisis is causing anxiety among children.
The government has classified Ceuta as a national security crisis
El Faro also reports that the Luna Blanca charity is accommodating approximately 370 women and girls. They receive three meals a day, but there are still no lavatories or washing facilities. The neighbourhood association president says they leave each morning to ‘find a way’ to wash. One of the local volunteers said: ‘I need some rest. We haven’t had holidays, or a summer, or anything. We’re exhausted, shattered.’ Another resident said simply: ‘All we want is for this to end and for them to move them out of here.’
The proposal to use sports centres as reception centres – a measure that was announced but later reversed – seems to have been the final straw for many residents. On the evening of 26 August, thousands demonstrated outside government offices, chanting ‘invasores, expulsión’ (‘expel the invaders’). Hundreds then attempted to reach the migrant camp on El Trampolín beach. Riot police used tear gas to keep the groups apart; some migrants threw stones. Police also reportedly prevented several attempted assaults on people whom demonstrators believed to be recent Moroccan arrivals. One man accused by demonstrators of being a Moroccan spy narrowly escaped a beating by taking refuge in a bakery until police arrived.
At about 5.30 a.m. on 27 August, El Faro reports that a group estimated at 30 to 40 migrants surrounded and stoned an army vehicle. Four soldiers were injured and had to abandon the vehicle and flee on foot; some of the attackers pursued them. Police and Guardia Civil officers subsequently arrested twelve migrants. The government has classified Ceuta as a national security crisis, yet it seems that soldiers deployed to help manage it do not automatically acquire the coercive powers of police officers. The head of the government’s unified command, Minister Ángel Víctor Torres, said:
Our priority is to return the migrants who have entered the country, but we must do so in accordance with the law, because in 2021 two officials were convicted for carrying out returns precipitately. If we do not secure places as soon as possible, the process will drag on, because we cannot register them [the migrants] or process their details. The sooner we have places, the sooner they can be returned.
Meanwhile, former conservative prime minister José María Aznar appeared in Ceuta on Thursday to show his support for the city. According to Aznar, ‘No one who breaches our border can remain on national territory.’ He added, ‘Spain’s territorial integrity has been violated and order and security must be restored.’ He also criticised socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has only just returned from holiday: ‘National sovereignty does not take a holiday.’ For Aznar, ‘weakness is and always will be provocative’.
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