Nobody knows the exact number of immigrants who entered Ceuta illegally in the assault on July 30. Between 70,000 and 80,000. Twenty days later, the same thing happens with those who still remain in the autonomous city: no one knows how many there are in total. At the time, the Minister of the Interior spoke of about 5,000. The local government’s calculations are very different: around 12,000, according to the count of NGOs and neighborhood associations.
Yesterday, the last number of foreign minors that the National Police has identified was revealed: 2,168. But the Ceuta authorities suspect that there are more, many more. The apocryphal figure is around 5,000 children. «The situation of girls and women who are hidden is very worrying»warns LA RAZÓN a person from the Juan Jesus Vivas.
The arithmetic, so uncertain, generates anguish and indignation among the city’s rulers, who describe a dystopian scenario and also warn of an indeterminate deadline for the resolution of the crisis. «If nothing changes, we could be like this for six to nine months»they alert this newspaper from the office of the president of Ceuta, where desperation is beginning to spread due to the lack of urgent measures. «There is no interest on the part of the Government».
A senior official of the corporation reveals that his main peace of mind, today, is getting his two youngest daughters, ages thirteen and fifteen, a can of “pepper spray so they can go out and defend themselves in case of an attack.”
For Monica GarciaMinister of Health, the association of “immigration with illness or insecurity is not true, it is xenophobia and racism.” Ceuta politicians do not think the same. What’s more: the feeling of chaos is perceived equally on the left and right. And if not, ask the socialist Melchor Leonvice president of the Assembly, who in the microphones of Antena 3 stated: «The situation is unsustainable. People are afraid, women cannot go out on the streets. “My eight-year-old daughter can’t go outside.”
The problem, the city’s residents insist with the endorsement of their president, is the absence of a clear horizon. Because, with the resources that are working on the ground, the forecast is bleak. Very gloomy.
Up to two years
In a meeting held this Tuesday by PP leaders with unions and associations of the National Police and the Civil Guard, the conclusions that the agents conveyed to them were devastating. «They have given us all kinds of estimates, “Some speak of up to two years to recover normality.”
For the leaders of Ceuta, normality means the full return of all those who remain wandering the streets, without shelter, food, or direction. And, also, those that fill both the CETI, a temporary detention center, and the tents that the Government has begun to install, or the classrooms set up in an extraordinary way in schools; and, of course, those who have set up their own tents on the Trampolín beaches, where they have even made a mosque out of cardboard.
The security forces cannot cope with the affiliation processes. The Government promised to reinforce the Immigration services with a team made up of “six people.” The truth is that the Ceuta authorities do not know exactly how many people are currently processing files. And they regret a bureaucratic process that can prolong the expulsion or, if necessary, the reception. If it were necessary because they are granted protection because they are in a vulnerable situation.
Although Ceuta’s priority, endorsed by Brussels, is the return of all immigrants. Majors and minors. The European Commission, through the mouth of the Home Affairs spokesperson, Markus Lammertexpressed this Tuesday: “We insist that the expectation is that all those who remain illegally in Ceuta will be returned.”
Regarding minors, and the protection attributed to them by European law, he added that a recently approved directive contemplates provisions for the return of migrants in an irregular situation, “including unaccompanied minors.” Hence “This is also covered by European Union law.”
The reality, however, turns out to be different. The Police itself makes a distinction between “the situation of sub-Saharans and that of Moroccans.” The latter, “as Morocco is considered a safe country by the EU,” could be expelled even if they appeal. The first, “if they resort, they can buy time.”
To the bureaucratic tangle, with a legal labyrinth that slows down the processes, we must add a precarious Immigration service for the exceptional nature of the moment that the autonomous city is going through due to the undetermined but high number of immigrants who are waiting to resolve their future. This is what the local authorities convey, who are clamoring for more means.
«In these twenty days, 30 asylum denials have been resolved. 1.5 a day »they detail from the surroundings of Vivas, where they appear frightened with the chronicification of the “chaos.” Because every day that passes in these circumstances is a day of economic and social “ruin”: with establishments closed and a good part of the population confined to their homes.