The central government takes control of the port of Ceuta to accommodate immigrants

The central government has taken control of the port of Ceuta to install a tent where immigrants who remain in the autonomous city can be accommodated. It is estimated that a thousand people could access these new facilities that the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration is going to install. The central Executive has had to sign an emergency resolution, done by the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, in order to take this measure that was negotiated in the board of directors of the Port Authority but which the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, refused to give in at the last minute.

At the last minute, the Vivas Government has denied the use of two plots of land in the port of Ceuta to accommodate more immigrants who, at this moment, are waiting for the facilities to be used to be finalized. The central Executive has not understood Vivas's refusal, which was based on a report by the director of the Port Authority of Ceuta, to which La Vanguardia had access, which concluded that the use of the port to house immigrants is “incompatible with the normal exploitation” of the facilities.

The main argument used by the Port Authority of Ceuta to deny the use of the facilities is that it prohibits “those occupations and uses of the public port domain that are intended for buildings for residence or habitation.” The Government responds that only tents will be installed for temporary accommodation, nothing will be built.

After the first report from the Port Authority of Ceuta, State Ports has issued a second document in the opposite direction, that is, validating the authorization of the port of the autonomous city by Migrations. “The intended activity involves a temporary occupation that is compatible with the regime provided” in the law, the agency concludes.

Following this report from State Ports, Minister Puente has issued the resolution to, based on article 73.3 of the Ports Law, take control of the Ceuta facilities. The objective is for Migrations to be able to occupy some 16,000 square meters of service area.

"Given the exceptional nature of the situation in Ceuta, and in accordance with article 73.3 of the consolidated text of the law on State Ports and the Merchant Navy, the Ministry of Transport has taken control of the situation and has decided to respond to the request of the Secretary of State for Migration, authorizing the use of a portion of the port's service area that is already open to the city, to properly attend to immigration, based on the report to said request issued by State Ports," sources from State Ports explain. Transportation.