Thousands of Migrants Enter Ceuta as Spanish Enclave Faces Border Surge

Thousands of migrants were seen running through the streets of Ceuta as authorities tried to relocate them to a new tent camp.

Police began transferring migrants from the beaches to the port area of the Spanish enclave on Friday.

Officers struggled to manage crowds as people pushed to secure places at the new tent site after spending weeks living along the beaches. Authorities have said the camp has capacity for 1,700 people.

Footage from Ceuta shows people racing through the streets towards the camp, with cheers and shouts heard as they run.

Local reports said National Police officers and the Riot Control Unit were called in to restore order, reportedly using tear gas as the situation descended into chaos.

The scenes follow the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants who crossed the border from Morocco in late July.

While most later returned, local authorities say about 13,000 people have remained in Ceuta, many of them sleeping rough on the enclave’s beaches.

Police started rounding up the migrants at 6.30am according to a Spanish government source in Ceuta. The tent city in the port has showers and beds, the source added.

 The Spanish government went ahead with the transfer despite opposition from the conservative local authority. 

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has faced strong criticism over the handling of the crisis.

Sánchez has however, insisted his government had not mishandled the crisis, instead saying authorities simply could not cope with the influx.

Speaking to left-leaning television programme El Intermedio on September 14, Sánchez admitted authorities had been overwhelmed by the sheer number of arrivals.

He said the government hoped to have the situation under control by the end of the year and appealed for patience from residents of Ceuta, which has a population of around 84,000.

The prime minister also faced questions over what his government knew before the influx.

Officials initially maintained they had received no warning, with the government delegation in Ceuta saying on August 25 that it had no information about what would happen on July 30.

But the government later released 40 previously classified communications showing Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) had warned on July 29 of organised attempts to enter Ceuta by land and sea.

One communication referred to a social media call for an attempted mass crossing the following evening, while the CNI also alerted Moroccan intelligence.

Sánchez rejected suggestions that the messages amounted to a formal warning of what was about to unfold.

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‘The WhatsApps are not proof that there was an alert, quite the contrary,’ he said.

Meanwhile, locals have expressed that they fear for their safety amid daily reports of violence, including attacks against the military and dozens of sexual assaults.

 Officials have warned that the small city in north Africa remains on the brink of disaster, with the ‘worst of the worst’ still there. 

The trouble risks escalating into violence, public safety experts told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo earlier this month.

‘The more normal ones have already left, while the worst of the worst remain,’ one expert said of the situation.

 ‘Little by little, they’re running out of the money they brought from Morocco. For them, topping up their mobile phone credit is a vital necessity, which could lead them to do foolish things… In short, it’s only a matter of time before a tragedy occurs.’

Ceuta’s chief prosecutor, Silvia Rojas, said there has been ‘an exponential increase’ in crimes such as sexual assault, including against minors. 

On Friday, an Algerian citizen in Ceuta was found guilty of sexual assault and will be deported from Spain for five years.

The Spanish Ministry of Equality confirmed 21 sexual assaults in August, five of which involved penetration and nine of which were committed against minors.

Meanwhile, sanitary conditions are dire in the makeshift shanty towns, and one Moroccan teen this week tested positive for monkeypox.

He is currently in isolation and receiving treatment. There have also been at least five cases of tuberculosis amongst the migrants.

Last week, Ceuta’s leader demanded more EU help for the ‘pressure cooker’ territory following the massive migrant rush into the region.  

‘The city is completely different from what it was before this event; Ceutans have lost their joy and their lifestyles have been completely shaken up,’ local regional president Juan Jesus Vivas told lawmakers in the European Parliament.

‘Ceuta is currently a pressure cooker which can explode at any minute. This is an unsustainable situation.’

Major protests in Spain have taken place in response to the migrant arrivals, with violence erupting between migrants and Ceutan residents.

Last month, locals stormed a makeshift migrant camp and set it on fire.