The protest, raised outside of political acronyms, seeks to stage a united city in the face of a situation that the organizers consider unsustainable.
Ceuta has turned this Sunday its migratory crisis into an image of citizen protest.
Thousands of neighbors have gathered in the Plaza de la Constitución under the slogan "Enough already. Ceuta does not surrender," in a call jointly promoted by the four major religious communities of the city: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu.
The mobilization started at 8:00 PM and brought together citizens from different neighborhoods and sensitivities with a central message: to demand a more forceful response from the State after the massive entry recorded on July 30.
A protest designed to show unity, not acronyms
The organizers have insisted from the beginning on keeping the concentration outside of party logic.
The goal is to present the protest as a common expression of Ceuta's society and not as a mobilization against a specific party.
This transversal character explains why the call has been supported by the president of the Autonomous City, Juan Jesús Vivas, and also by the unions CCOO and UGT.
Vivas had called for broad participation and argued that the situation required a response above ideological differences.
During the concentration, the reading of a joint manifesto was planned in which the four religious communities demand "immediate, decisive, and proportionate" action in response to the crisis.
Security, border, and pressure on public services
The demands go beyond border control.
Among the demands raised are a greater reinforcement of the National Police and Civil Guard, more involvement from the central Government, an improvement in the protection of the border with Morocco, and measures that allow alleviating the pressure on the city's reception resources.
Ceuta has been trying to recover normality for more than a week while continuing to identify and assist people who remain in the city.
The crisis has strained social services, reception devices, facilities for minors, and security resources.
83 deceased since the massive entry, according to the latest data cited by EFE
The concentration also takes place after a crisis with a high human cost.
EFE places the number of deceased at 83 according to the latest data provided, a figure that explains a good part of the social impact that the episode has had in a city of reduced dimensions.
This balance adds to the difficulty of knowing precisely how many people still remain in Ceuta territory.
The different administrations have handled different estimates over the last few days and there is still no single count that allows definitively closing the dimension of the arrived and not returned population.
The border with Morocco returns to the center of the debate
Another of the major messages of the concentration looks directly at the border perimeter.
The organizers demand measures that allow Ceuta to avoid facing a similar situation again and a greater capacity of the State to respond to large-scale migratory movements.
The concern has been reinforced by the calls spread on social networks for a possible new attempt to enter around August 15.
The Civil Guard is investigating those messages and the situation has led to increased surveillance in recent days.
Vivas supports the mobilization
The Ceuta president has wanted to associate himself with the message of unity.
His position during the crisis has been to demand more personnel, greater response capacity from the State, and solutions that allow for the decongestion of reception resources.
The regional government considers that the magnitude of the episode far exceeds the ordinary capacities of Ceuta.
The concentration this Sunday places that institutional demand directly on the street.
Some attendees lash out at Sánchez
Although the call has been formally presented outside of the parties, during the protest messages against the central government have also been heard.
El País reports that some protesters have chanted slogans directed at President Pedro Sánchez and have accused the Executive of a lack of response to the crisis.
This introduces a political dimension that is difficult to completely separate from the mobilization, although the organizers have wanted to preserve its citizen character.
The dominant image, in any case, is that of the four religious communities sharing the call and a single manifesto.
Ceuta wants to turn the demonstration into a turning point
The protest comes as the emergency enters a second phase.
The massive entry has ended, but its consequences remain open: humanitarian attention, identification of people, situation of minors, pressure on public devices, and fear of new calls.
The demand that comes this Sunday from the Plaza de la Constitución is precisely that the crisis stop being managed as a succession of emergencies and instead have a structural response.
In a city accustomed to living next to one of the most sensitive external borders of the European Union, the concentration aims to turn the slogan "Ceuta does not surrender" into something more than a slogan: a request to the State so that the city does not have to face another episode of these dimensions alone.