Ceuta mayor calls for migrant detention amid mass influx crisis

Thousands of migrants and asylum seekers in Ceuta face dire conditions, sparking political and social tensions in the Spanish territory.

Ceuta’s leader has demanded the detention and expulsion of thousands of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants roaming the streets in the Spanish North African territory after last month’s mass crossing from Morocco.

“A space that acts as an internment centre for foreigners must be set up, where these people can be held and remain confined,” Ceuta’s Mayor-President Juan Jesus Vivas of the conservative Popular Party told reporters.

He said the measure “must be achieved urgently” so that the migrants “are not in our streets and that expulsion proceedings can be handled with greater speed and ease”.

Mass border breach

A surge of asylum seekers and migrants swam or used inflatable rafts to cross from Morocco to Ceuta at the end of July, sparking a debate about the external borders of the European Union and controversy between Spain and other EU members.

Spanish authorities on Monday updated the estimated number of irregular migrants who made the journey to 80,000.

The Spanish government says 70,000 migrants and asylum seekers returned to Morocco within two days.

But the thousands who remained, including hundreds of unaccompanied children who cannot be summarily deported under Spanish law, are struggling to access food, water, shelter and sanitation, putting a strain on Ceuta’s resources.

Their future has sparked a political battle between Spain’s leftist central government and regions governed by the main conservative Popular Party and far-right Vox, which oppose taking in unaccompanied children under existing legal provisions.

Ceuta Mayor Vivas estimates that between 8,000 and 11,000 migrants are still in the Spanish territory and says the situation is “unsustainable”. He disputes the government’s statistics that only 2,500 asylum seekers and undocumented migrants remain.

Police said that 5,000 Ceuta residents gathered to protest on Sunday over the handling of the migration crisis that they say has left the enclave unsafe.

The Spanish government minister responsible for relations with the regions, Angel Victor Torres, assured Ceuta’s population that police and troop numbers had been ramped up, including 40 percent more civil guards.