None of them are going to stay in Ceuta, none of them are going to go to the peninsula, none of them are going to be regularized. None of them, I repeat it again." The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, was categorical in his speech in Ceuta on August 13. No one who had entered the autonomous city irregularly, as in the avalanche of July 30, will end up on the peninsula.
But he immediately added that it was necessary to except "very exceptional" cases that reflect national and international laws because they are of "maximum vulnerability." In any case, the commitment of the socialist wing of the Government is firm: no minor will be sent to the peninsula. But the government coalition partner, Sumar, is pushing hard for the almost 2,500 unaccompanied minors wandering the streets of Ceuta to be referred to the autonomous communities that can take them in. Starting with "500 very vulnerable girls."
It is the Minister of Youth and Children herself, Sira Rego, who is demanding that the only "humanitarian" solution be applied that would mean unclogging the Ceuta bureaucratic funnel and giving shelter to minors. Because currently, as this newspaper revealed, local and Immigration officials refuse to accelerate the return deadlines, for fear of subsequent convictions for prevarication, as already happened after the express returns of 2021.
So these days the Government has only managed to finish two dozen files, for sending to Morocco. The neighboring country has publicly shown its willingness to receive the returnees, but these statements are not consistent with its actual behavior: Minister Rego denounced that none of the 600 files sent to Morocco prior to the July 30 avalanche have been processed.
Therefore, and in the face of growing pressure, some regional governments of the PP have already been put on alert. They assume that the minors will end up leaving Ceuta for the peninsula as an intermediate stage until the bureaucratic jam is resolved, and they assure that, although they disagree, they will not break the law. Sources from the Ministry of Youth assure that, privately, some of the CCAA governed by popular people have already conveyed that they are looking for beds in the event of an eventuality that they already discount. Because they believe that the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, will end up accepting this solution as a "lesser evil."
This newspaper has consulted the popular regional governments, and the majority sense that they will have to take in minors due to legal imperative, although there are others who declare themselves already saturated and will ask that it not apply to them. Of course, everyone would resort to Justice, since it is a coordinated response that they have already been doing.
"We are very clear that the end will be that, the minors will end up coming to the peninsula. And if they distribute them, you have to accept them, we always comply with the law," says one of the government barons consulted. "And we cannot say no, if they send them to us. In the end, it will be the only way" to decongest Ceuta "while the repatriations are processed," adds another president. "Absolutely," he emphasizes. "We will have to accept them, as always, but we have no room," adds a third president. "Of course, the law is complied with. If they send you, you have to welcome them, period," another resigns.
Of course, the PP leaders consulted also fear that this "distribution", as they call it, would in no way harm the territories on which the parliamentary majority that supports Pedro Sánchez most depends: "Let's see how many the Basque Country and Catalonia welcome." "That this distribution be made with the same criteria as the financing: everything for Catalonia," ironically says another baron. "The last distribution [in which Catalonia and the Basque Country benefited] sounded like a joke," he adds.
Pedro Sánchez said last Monday that there are only 1,200 minors left in Ceuta, but the Ministry of Youth and Children corrects and raises the figure to a range between 2,200 and 2,500. There are 1,478 officially recognized and counted and "between 700 and 1,000 more" who have not yet been affiliated. It is a figure that is being limited day by day, and this is the latest update.
During his appearance in the Congress of Deputies to give explanations about the management of the crisis, Rego placed the transfer of minors as one of the main ways to "de-escalate" the situation in the city and, at the same time, "guarantee the rights and care of these boys and girls." According to the minister, the administrative procedures that affect minors can be "continued perfectly from any point in our country", while Ceuta improves its situation.
Although in private some PP barons acknowledge that, if forced to do so, they will take in the minors, in public they emphasize that they can no longer receive any more, and warn that a transfer to the peninsula would reinforce the "call effect." From the Junta de Andalucía they assure: "We are clear that if illegal immigrants achieve the objective of going to the peninsula, the appeal effect will be greater." "We are above 100% and we do not have the capacity" to receive more adolescents, add sources close to Juanma Moreno.
In Castilla y León and Cantabria they state that the plan would be to accept them legally, but go to court. "We have appealed everything for a year. We are going to continue opposing, we are not going to facilitate the situation, because here there is no immigration or minor problem, it is an invasion," lament sources from the Castilian-Leonese Board.
A case apart are Murcia and the Balearic Islands, where they are receiving more boats this year: "No one has called us." Those around Juanfran Pérez-Llorca, president of the Valencian Community, have the same opinion: "I think it is not a problem of immigration. It is a problem of an invasion that requires another procedure." And they affect, just as in Andalusia, that in their autonomous community there are no longer beds for minors.
The other big problem for the PP is that in Extremadura, Castilla y León and Aragón, the powers over foreign minors are led by the Vox councilors, who requested them. The vice presidents, specifically. Vox will do the same in all three, as it acts in a collegial manner under instructions from the Madrid management.
