The Yunes fishmongers in the central market of Ceuta ship much lower than usual on a Saturday at nine. “Normally, older people no longer go out shopping or walking in the afternoons,” says a paradista. Fátima is a caretaker at the University Hospital, the only one in a city on whose patience the governance of Spain depends. “My 20-year-old daughter doesn't go out when it gets dark out of fear and in Ceuta life was on the street.” Third warning: Mercadona, Almadraba neighborhood, soldiers at the doors, cars packed. A couple from Ceuta Muslims: “This is not going fast, when the cold comes they will not be able to sleep outdoors and hunger is very bad.”
Ceuta. Saturday in September, two days before the start of the school year. The “gateway to the Mediterranean” has 83,000 inhabitants (43% Muslim) and a lot of patience. “A city on the peninsula is experiencing this and the streets would burn,” says the owner of a central stationery store.
Bus line 7 takes you in twenty minutes and for 85 cents from the first world (Plaza de la Constitución/Mercado Central) to the Tarajal border crossing, very quiet. It is not the third world but the route has an air because it includes a panoramic view of the crowded Lobo Colmenar bagging center on whose margins dozens of young Moroccans who arrived in 24 hours in July and could change Spain camp, live poorly and urinate as they can.
Ceuta does not escape the contradictions of the West: the majority defends an express return of immigrants, which is why they systematically oppose the State setting up accommodation for fear that this would prolong their stay. On the other hand, few people from Ceuta show indifference to the desire to seek a better future. The problem is that many of these young people are perceived as undesirable. "There is no war or anything like that in Morocco, so it is not understandable to request asylum. We have humanity but... and the rights of our minors, what?" says Carmen, a client of the Central Market, where a spice expert, Musa, a Muslim, laments that "the good ones returned to Morocco when they saw the panorama and the bad ones have stayed."
How long will Ceuta – apparently – remain calm if the return process drags on for months? Headline of the El Pueblo de Ceuta editorial: “the lack of media continues to be shameful.” "I can't imagine this being like this beyond three months," says an official on condition of anonymity, a trend. "I'm one of those who voted for PSOE, but think that there are people from Ceuta who don't eat three times a day."
Fátima is a caretaker at the University Hospital, where nine immigrants wait their turn in the emergency room at the stroke of one o'clock. "I would have to come at night, that's when it gets busy. It's their schedule," says a colleague. Fátima is the daughter of Muslims from Ceuta, she feels compassion for these young people and at the same time reveals that "there are a few who are criminals, I know this because I hear their conversations. My eldest daughter, twenty years old, does not dare to go out at night and in Ceuta life is on the street."
The hospital is closely guarded by the military. “We had a lot of fights,” he explains. The surroundings are not Beverly Hills but the Ceuta of the periphery, which brings together the bulk of the aimless day-to-day life of the invaders. Many Ceuta residents corroborate that the security device seems to prioritize the urban center at the expense of modest or, directly, conflictive neighborhoods such as the Príncipe neighborhood. In this life there are always classes...
Ceuta changed on July 31, 2026, more than in all the decades of democracy. Nobody believes that Rabat was immune to the provocation but there are no militaristic invocations either because borders are commerce. At most, magical solutions. “If Sánchez has such a good relationship, it would be enough to phone Rabat and have them accept the return of their citizens,” says a pensioner driving a car at Mercadona (note: Juan Roig appeared in Ceuta on August 18 to encourage his employees).
We journalists bear the reproach – it stings here – of projecting the image that Ceuta is xenophobic. A Justice official summarizes his life. "I arrived from Córdoba when I was six years old and I'm 56. My father was a teacher. Our neighbors were Muslims, Jewish friends gave us sweets and as a child I attended the funeral of a Hindu. When I told these things the summers in Córdoba were amazing." Lessons of coexistence to Ceuta, the fair ones...
