The people of Ceuta who, filling the void of public administrations, have voluntarily taken charge of welcoming people who crossed irregularly into the autonomous city have exploded. The days go by, about twenty now, but the authorities still do not provide a decent (and safe) space to thousands of immigrants who remain outdoors, despite the Government's promise to “immediately” deploy four centers with 1,500 beds.
“If there is no solution now, we volunteers are not going to take care of anyone else,” warned yesterday Hafida Mustafa, a resident of the Príncipe neighborhood who has been guarding the sports court for more than a week that became a refuge for girls and adolescents who arrived alone in the city, in a situation of enormous vulnerability to sexual violence, exploitation or trafficking. Patience is running out in the streets, with neighbors with feelings of fatigue and insecurity and immigrants in inhumane conditions, while the new spaces have not yet been enabled. They don't even have an opening date.
The Government remains firm in its plan of not carrying out a single transfer of immigrants to the Peninsula, despite the obvious difficulties in organizing all receptions in Ceuta, whose residents have the feeling that their city is, increasingly, a powder keg ready to explode. In previous migration crises, in Ceuta in 2011 or in the Canary Islands since 2024, the Executive always appealed to the solidarity of all the autonomous communities: even reforming the Immigration Law to establish a mandatory distribution of migrant minors between territories.
Now, with Brussels looking closely at Spain's immigration policy due to criticism from some community partners, the premise is to provide shelter in the same autonomous city while progress is made in the deportations of immigrants who do not meet the legal requirements of persecution to achieve international protection, or who come from a safe country. As is the case of Morocco after the approval of the European Asylum Pact. According to ministerial sources, sending the seven operations in Spain to a foreign detention center (CIE) is not even contemplated. They are all on the Peninsula, in Algeciras the closest. So much so that the Government spokesperson, Elma Saiz, does not rule out that the number of beds could rise to 4,000.
The distribution of minors between autonomous communities is also on hold since the mass crossing. Yesterday, the Ministry of the Interior reported that 2,168 minors have been identified in Ceuta since July 30. According to police sources, the vast majority are Moroccan, although there is also a percentage of children and young people from Chad or Sudan, countries with a high positive resolution of international protection. On July 15, Ceuta cared for 213 minors. The figure now rises to 1,376: 4,600% more than its occupancy. The Ceuta Government affirms that the number is going to be “much, much higher.”
In those that, at some point, the dozens of girls who yesterday continued in the Prince's sports center must be welcomed. The volunteers, fed up, don't even know what figure to give about how many minors are in the facility. Police or military personnel still do not appear to protect them. Authorities installed two new portable public toilets on Monday. They already have three for about 400. No showers.
There is another large group of adolescents on the slopes near the center for temporary stay of immigrants (CETI). Among the trees we lose count of the number of huts built that provide shelter for men, but they have chosen the edge of the road to settle. The reason? The riot vans that are permanently stationed at the doors of the CETI. They explain that there, with agents at their side, they feel safer. A few meters away is the equestrian center, with a track on which a new center is planned to be built. There was no movement yesterday morning. On the Embolsamiento esplanade in the Loma Colmenar neighborhood, very close to the border, the army only installed a dozen military modules that will fill the temporary emergency complex and which will have health care and protected spaces for women and minors.
Late in the afternoon, volunteers extracted a promise from authorities that relocations were just around the corner. May they be patient. “It is worth waiting just a little longer,” the peripheral associations asked their neighbors. “No one can teach us patriotism classes,” they expressed in a statement.
