The Spanish Ministry of the Interior has arranged for 22 inmates to be transferred from the prison in Ceuta after her eviction was carried out on 23 September 2026 in Centro Penitenciario Botafuegos in the Andalusian Algeciras . Ministry sources confirmed this to Europa Press. The aim is to reduce pressure on the prison in Ceuta, where occupancy has risen significantly since the end of July.
The background is overcrowding at Ceuta prison Loma Mendizábal, which the union CSIF has highlighted several times. The CSIF section in Ceuta recently called for occupancy to be capped at an “operational maximum” of 280 inmates, with any above that number transferred to mainland Spain. The union cited security risks and excessive pressure on staff. According to regional press reports, the Interior Ministry has now responded to the situation with targeted transfers to ease the pressure.
The receiving facility selected was Botafuegos prison in Algeciras. The facility in the province of Cádiz has capacity for more than a thousand places and a modular layout that allows for flexible accommodation, according to consistent media reports. The authorities gave no specific details about the offences or sentences of those transferred. Personal data were not released for reasons relating to prison administration and data protection.
The authorities in Ceuta and Andalusia have been in close contact in recent weeks about the measures needed to ease the pressure. According to media reports, the transfer was ordered directly by the Interior Ministry and coordinated with the Directorate-General for Prisons. Other structural measures to stabilise the prison system in Ceuta were discussed, but no firm new decisions beyond the transfer now completed were initially announced.
The current measure therefore follows the approach of easing acute pressure points in Spain’s prison system across regions. The authorities did not say whether further transfers from Ceuta to mainland Spain would take place. This will depend on ongoing occupancy at Loma Mendizábal and the capacity of facilities in Andalusia. The CSIF union stresses that additional staffing plans and clear occupancy limits are needed to stabilise operations in the long term.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).