More than a week after an unprecedented migration surge hit the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa, the city is facing a severe humanitarian emergency.
Hundreds of unaccompanied minor migrants are stranded on the streets, beaches and in abandoned industrial areas as local reception centres are completely overcrowded. As of this morning, the situation is critical and dynamic.
According to official figures from local authorities, the capacity of specialised facilities in Ceuta is being exceeded many times. Officially, the Spanish National Police have identified over 520 minors, but humanitarian organisations on the ground say the real number of unaccompanied children and young people exceeds 1,100. According to reports by the French news agency AFP (afp.com), many of them sleep outdoors in extreme summer temperatures, without constant access to food, water and sanitation.
Legal obstacles to deportation and political conflict
Spanish law categorically prohibits the expedited expulsion of unaccompanied minors under 18. They must undergo a detailed process of identification, assessment of their international protection needs and tracing their families in their country of origin.
The head of the local government in Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, made an official address to the European Parliament, broadcast on Spanish public broadcaster RTVE (rtve.es). Vivas called for an urgent and solidarity-based distribution of migrant minors to the other autonomous regions of Spain. According to him, the local child protection system is "totally paralyzed and collapsed".
Despite the emergency 25 million euros allocated by the central government in Madrid to deal with the crisis, the plan to relocate the children is facing strong political resistance. The regions, governed by the right-wing Popular Party (PP) and the far-right Vox party, have already announced that they will appeal to the courts any decision to forcibly distribute migrants on their territories. They insist that Morocco must take responsibility and the children be returned to their homes.
Disinformation and the risk of a new wave on August 15
The current crisis was provoked in late July, when between 50,000 and 72,000 migrants stormed the border of Ceuta, swimming through the areas around the border fences. A large part of them have already been returned to Morocco, but between 3,000 and 5,000 asylum seekers remain in the city.
An analysis by the international organization „Save the Children“ (savethechildren.es) warns of serious risks of violence, trafficking and exploitation against children left without shelter on the streets of the enclave. Even more alarming are the data of the Spanish intelligence services, which were reported by the local publication “El Faro de Ceuta“ (elfarodeceuta.es). According to the investigation, new false rumors about “opening the borders” are being widely spread on social networks, organizing another mass assault on Ceuta, planned for August 15. The authorities in Spain and the EU are on high alert to prevent a new escalating pressure on the external border.