Screams, running and sirens marked the early hours of Monday morning in Ceuta. The attempt by some 200 immigrants to swim across the island activated the Guardia Civil, Maritime Rescue, the Red Cross and city leaders from early in the evening. It was a new episode of what the city calls “migratory pressure”, one more, but the volume of people who have thrown themselves into the sea in recent days has raised the alert among the authorities who are looking to the other side of the border. “Morocco’s efforts are notable in containing the hundreds of attempts every day, but they are not enough,” explain sources from the Administration. The same sources point out that the return process could be more agile with greater collaboration from the Moroccan authorities.
Since Friday, there have been almost 600 attempts to enter, either by swimming or through the fence, according to sources familiar with the situation in the autonomous city, who do not specify how many of them have managed to stay. This is a significant figure if one takes into account that up to July 31, 543 immigrants had entered Ceuta by land and sea, according to official figures from the Ministry of the Interior. The numbers may be even higher because the count for the Moroccan part is unknown.
The arrivals compromise the capacities of the city, both regional and state, since the former are already on the verge of collapse and the latter are at the limit of their capacity.
Among those who manage to set foot on Spanish territory, the minors, in theory, are not being returned and should be taken in by the city. And, according to the local government, only since Friday the entry of around fifty minors has been recorded.
As is the case in the Canary Islands, Ceuta is also overwhelmed with the reception of migrant children and adolescents and any new arrival means raising the situation of overcrowding in the juvenile centres one more degree. Currently, there are almost 400 children being housed, when their spaces should house only 130, so they remain above 300% of their capacity. The situation has led the city government to enable an industrial warehouse, like those that were opened in the mass entry of 10,000 people in May 2021 and which kept the children in deplorable conditions for days. “The space is enabled and its conditions have nothing to do with those of that time,” warns the local government. “It is an extraordinary measure given the situation,” they add.
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In this context, the president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, declared himself —contrary to his party’s position— in favour of changing the immigration law to force all autonomous communities to welcome migrant minors who arrive in extra-peninsular territories such as Ceuta, Melilla and the Canary Islands. The proposal was rejected in Congress due to the refusal of the PP, Junts and Vox.
The concern also extends to the city’s Temporary Stay Centre for Immigrants (CETI), which is housing a hundred people over its capacity. This state facility, which temporarily houses migrants and refugees arriving in Ceuta until they are transferred to the Peninsula, has already been occupied several times in recent months, exceeding the 512 places planned. The overcrowding led the Ministry of the Interior to authorise and expedite dozens of extraordinary departures to restore normality to the centre and everything indicates that it will have to do so more.
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