“These are all going to the peninsula”. From a small mound full of food remains, plastic bags and broken glass from drinks, three uniform industrial warehouses can be seen raised on a concrete floor. There are two front walls, the sides are exposed to the elements.
An inclined sheet covers rows of mobile beds. Metallic, white. As many as 1,300, which are the people sheltered in the Loma Margarita camp, Army land now occupied by sub-Saharans who crossed the border in the invasion at the end of July. They stay away from the North Africans to avoid further clashes.
Ismael Derdabinational police of Ceuta and spokesperson for the Unified SUP Union, is clear: none of them will return to their country. They will all end up crossing the Strait. Sooner or later. «They come from war zones, they will be given asylum. Sure”.
Initially, the Government assumed the return of all those who had entered illegally. Vain words as time passes. The Minister of Territorial Policy and person responsible for the sole command, Angel Victor Torresin his last appearance, spoke of more than 4,000 voluntary returns and put the expulsions at 278. He refused to offer data on the immigrants who remain in the autonomous city and did not clarify the number of affiliations made to date.
Meanwhile, the Government is trying to open the 6,000 vacancies announced and the president, Pedro Sanchezdescribed a “structural reality” at the start of his television tour, suggesting that the shelters will not be temporary. “The State has to have broader centers to assume this reality.”
One thing happens: neither the Ceuta authorities, nor the State Security Forces and Bodies on the ground, nor the neighborhood associations, nor the social entities believe that 6,000 beds are enough to care for all the immigrants who still wander around the city today, among the streets and improvised settlements. And there is one more derivative: the slowness with which return files are being carried out.
The Police continue to demand more resources for Immigration. «Reinforcements have arrived, but they are not enough. They do not cover all the services that exist»says the SUP spokesperson.
The Government has ended up recognizing that it is not so easy to return immigrants to Morocco. And now it is moving in a direction that frightens the people of Ceuta. On the president’s team Juan Jesus Vivas they talk about a «chronification» of the crisis. And the neighbors put their hands on their heads. “They are going to turn our city into a refugee camp”says one of them with desolation.
Pilar CancelaSecretary of State for Migration, visited last Tuesday afternoon Trampolín Beach, the largest irregular immigrant settlement, where the Red Cross offers some 4,500 menus a day. “They are looking for land,” reveals to LA RAZÓN a cooperator who met with her.
To the planned locations, we must add others that are in contention, such as the García Aldave military barracks. Because if the return of illegal immigrants cannot be accelerated, the Government is committed to expanding the places it plans to open.
Meanwhile, tension does not cease in the autonomous city. Yesterday, Tuesday, The National Police arrested an adult Moroccan immigrant for attacking a soldier with a knife. The events, which were exclusively published by the digital edition of this newspaper, occurred at 9 pm between the district of Benzú and Playa del Trampolín.
A group of soldiers were trying to break up a street brawl. Suddenly, one of the immigrants lunged at a soldier. He was carrying a knife. The attacker was subdued and then shackled by the National Police, who sent him to the police station to bring him to justice.
The early hours of Wednesday, once again, were once again a tinderbox, with endless calls from Ceuta residents to security agents to warn of disturbances in the streets. Above all, in the most conflictive areas: the Rosales neighborhood or the Príncipe neighborhood.
On the other hand, Mount Tortuga, near the border, woke up yesterday burned by a fire that was put out in time.