Colonel Sebastián Vega analyzes the migratory avalanche in Ceuta and its link with Morocco

Colonel Sebastián Vega (Melilla, 1961) has been at the head of the Ceuta Local Police since 2017. Before that, between 2010 and 2012, he was assigned to the head of the Ceuta Regular Group No. 54, so the ins and outs of the Autonomous City are not unknown territory to him. On September 1, after turning 65, he left office after reaching retirement age.

How do you interpret what happened on July 30?

It must be read in a political key. ?We cannot talk about a humanitarian crisis. It has been an attack on the territorial integrity of Spain and Ceuta should not be separated from Spain. Furthermore, it has unfortunately become a humanitarian drama, but that cannot fall on the shoulders of Ceuta and, of course, one cannot think that by injecting millions of euros this situation is going to give another result than what the people of Ceuta live every day, which is with bitterness, sadness, sorrow, anger and also despair. Who is going to bet on Ceuta when it is the second time it has happened to us and we have not seen remedies between 2021 and now?

The Police informed the judge investigating the avalanche that Moroccan agents planned and executed the jump.

No one who has been to Morocco or who knows it a little can think that 2,000, 3,000, at least 80,000 people can wander around Morocco without the Moroccan authorities knowing. ?In Morocco, no one moves his mustache without the knowledge of the information structure that exists around the power exercised by the King, who was 20 kilometers away celebrating the anniversary of his accession to the throne. Nobody can think that this does not have a political and intentional background behind it on the part of Morocco, which has always been characterized by putting pressure on Spain with immigration.

And yet Pedro Sánchez maintained Morocco as a reliable partner.

It's absurd. I was at the meeting we had here on the 31st when Pedro Sánchez came. And there, he openly spoke of an attack on territorial integrity: he himself was naming it.

Did you target Morocco?

He said it was an attack on integrity. Then he gathered his candles when he stated that he was a reliable partner and that contrary to what had happened in 2021, the communication channels between Spain and Morocco, the diplomatic channels, remained open. On the other hand, I understand in a certain way that Spain maintains that mantra that Morocco is a reliable partner. Because? The only interpretation is because if they close the door on us, whatever little or much that may leave from now on towards Morocco, we will not keep.

Interior points out that there are still 5,000 immigrants in Ceuta and the City Government, about 10,000. Are these figures close to the size of the problem?

Well, first we don't know who entered. And then, calculating what there is without seeing them together is impossible, but we estimate that between 7,000 and 8,000 people is what there may be. We will have to go to the resources and estimate above what is there, how many may be hidden waiting for the soufflé to go down.

The Local Police is the first intervention body. What profiles have you appreciated among the people who stay?

There are bad people and less bad people. There are people who have come looking for a future and there are people who have come without knowing why. But some are already showing their paw. Let's not think that they are little angels, nor that they are all fleeing persecution beyond the fact that they are street people, for whom Morocco has nowhere to place them. And for them El Dorado means going to the peninsula. Spain would have to get involved with Ceuta because it will receive the majority.

Attempts at violence are occurring among the immigrants themselves.

Yes, but there are components that can cause this to explode. These people are not used to drinking and some of them drink. Most of them carry a knife on them, and they tell you so. Nobody exempts us from the possibility that in an outbreak of violence on one side or the other, that knife comes out and ends a person's life. And whatever the life of a Ceutí is like, prepare yourself. And if it's the life of an immigrant, get ready. In either case, a small explosion can turn this into the powder keg that is so talked about.

They have about 300 agents.

I think that right now there are fewer, 286. There is an important part that is released due to union issues, which is a right, and with some temporary leave, due to different service commissions outside. As of today, the number of medical sick leave is around 40, which I believe is an endemic disease in Spain that sometimes hides work absenteeism of which I also believe we are victims, just like the rest of Spanish society.

How have they coordinated with the other bodies? Were their troops sufficient?

The City has its Police with more and more tasks, providing more support and coordinating from the first minute with the State Security Forces and Bodies, and would need a resizing in terms of the number of troops. Many local police officers came back from vacation on the 30th, 31st, 1st and 2nd, when we established a 24-hour service. Then the service was organized in such a way that we began to have some rest and that allowed us during those first four days to have a presence from which, as a representative of the Local Police, I was fortunate to receive the gratitude of many citizens. But as I say, it was due to the efforts of the police officers who were involved from the first moment.