In Ceuta have Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil began a large-scale transfer on 18 September of people who had been staying in makeshift camps on Benítez and El Trampolín beaches since a mass arrival in late July. The destination is a temporary reception centre at the Port of Ceuta. According to local authorities, several thousand people were taken to the port area in the first phase; the city administration put the number affected at around 3,000. The official figure for the new camp is around 1,700 places, pointing to a shortage of accommodation.
The measure followed a decision on 17 September, when a chamber of the Audiencia Nacional rejected an emergency application by the police union SUP against the use of the port areas. This cleared the way for the state operation. There was crowding and a few isolated clashes during the transfer. According to media reports, officers fired warning shots into the air in some cases and used physical force to disperse crowds and secure assembly points. No official figures for injuries were initially available.
The leader of the Partido Popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said that same day in Melilla, that the scenes showed the government was “unable to guarantee public order”. He also claimed that some of those arriving were not looking for work but were confronting security forces. This judgemental portrayal contrasts with the authorities’ classification of the situation as one of migration and reception following irregular border crossings. The Ministry of the Interior and the Government Delegation in Ceuta defended the transfer as a necessary logistical and humanitarian measure to improve care, registration and the assessment of individual cases.
The background is the strain on local capacity following the mass entry on 30 and 31 July, after which a situation of interest for national security was declared in August. The move to the port camp is intended to improve basic provision and order in the short term. At the same time, key questions remain: how quickly cases can be processed, how vulnerable groups can be adequately protected and how longer-term accommodation can be provided. Legal and parliamentary scrutiny of the use of infrastructure, the treatment of minors and the length of stays without a formal admission decision has been announced or is already under way. Observers expect the management of the situation in Ceuta to continue shaping domestic political debate on migration, the division of powers between the state and the city, and the role of European support.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).