Ceuta’s President: “I trust in everyone’s sense of state to approve the mandatory distribution of minors”

The president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, from the Popular Party, is concerned about the conflict that is being generated around the obligatory distribution of migrant minors promoted by the central government and that of the Canary Islands with a change in the Immigration Law. He does not want to contribute to it, but the city that he has presided over since 2001 is one of the greatest beneficiaries of this legislative modification and defends its position in favour of “binding and automatic” referrals. “We are facing a phenomenon that requires, without question, a supportive behaviour”, he affirms in a telephone interview with EL PAÍS. Vivas does not know the details of the text agreed between the Canary Islands and Madrid, but he shares the philosophy and hopes that it will go ahead. “I trust in everyone’s sense of State to address this issue”, he maintains.

The text that is intended to change the law provides for the activation of a migration contingency situation every time the occupation of the centres for minors in Ceuta, Melilla or the Canary Islands exceeds 150%. A mandatory distribution would then be activated throughout the territory, based on income, unemployment, population dispersion or the minors already received in each community. The legislative modification requires a simple majority in Congress, in addition to a certain consensus between the host autonomous communities, the majority governed by the PP. The internal dilemma that arises is that the norm benefits two autonomous cities governed by the PP and the Canary Islands, where it co-governs with the Canarian Coalition, at the same time that it forces other communities in the hands of the PP to receive the children. The distribution of minors, only counting those who would leave from the Canary Islands, amounts to more than 3,000.

Vivas has always been a loose cannon in the PP – “I am the president of Ceuta before I am the party president,” he says – and, faced with the dilemma, he supports the yes vote. “Our capacity is for 80 children and we have 300. We are a territory of 20 square kilometres out of the 500,000 that Spain has, but we take in 3% of the minors. Who does not understand that this is an unsustainable situation?” he questions. “The situation in Ceuta is one of collapse and it is a very serious detriment to the care of minors and to the city as a whole,” he warns.

The president of Ceuta does not venture to say what the PP’s position will be, although he is aware of the reluctance of some of the communities. “They are all in favour of solidarity and although there are critical arguments against the Government’s actions, there has not yet been a formal pronouncement,” he explains. “I understand that one cannot contribute more than what one does not have, but imagine the situation in Ceuta and the Canary Islands, where what one has is absolutely overwhelmed,” he says. In response to the words of the leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who on Tuesday showed himself in favour of solidarity, but with limits – “you cannot demand that a community do things that it cannot attend to,” he said – Vivas concludes: “I do not doubt Feijóo’s commitment to solidarity. I have full confidence in my party.”

The most critical communities (Andalusia, La Rioja, Murcia, Madrid and Andalusia, among others) are asking for more funding, complaining that they are already overwhelmed or demanding new criteria, different from those already agreed for voluntary distributions, to redistribute the minors. “I agree that the Government should provide more resources because we are dealing with an immigration issue,” he concedes. “But regarding the change of criteria, although it can be discussed, I think that as long as there are no others, the ones that exist must be applied. Do we want to change them? There will be time, but in the Canary Islands and Ceuta we are in an emergency situation,” he maintains.

While the Canary Islands and Ceuta are constantly asking for help, the same is not happening in Melilla. The autonomous city, although under less pressure, would be the third beneficiary of the legislative change and is always exposed to illegal entries. “The sensitivity depends on the pressure that is under, that is the only explanation I see,” he says.

Vivas still has a vivid memory of the massive influx of 10,000 people from Morocco in May 2021. After that episode, sponsored by the Moroccan security forces themselves, some 700 children and adolescents remained in the city, hundreds of them living on the streets. Vivas and his team cried out for solidarity from the rest of the communities, which to date has resulted in the transfer of 340 minors.

The president of Ceuta does not believe that the pressure that Vox is exerting on this matter, even threatening to break up the governments that it maintains with the PP in five autonomous communities, is influencing the internal debate of the popular party. “I do not share any of their positions. Here Vox in the Assembly of Ceuta is against the referral of minors, but without offering any solution. I do not know if what they intend is for Ceuta to become a refuge city for unaccompanied minors,” he questions. “They criminalize minors, they defend repatriation when we have sentences against them… These are unrealizable approaches,” he adds.

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